Nev
by Backroads
Summary: A modern Snow White is thrown into a world of magic and secrets when she discovers a mystery of her family and is brought into the woods for protection.
1. Prologue

I've always believed in magic. Some of you may scoff at that, which is understandable. The common urban life with its endless strings of malls and coffee shops and office buildings leaves little room for anything but cold, hard, and, dare I say it, boring sensibility.  
  
Yet once one gets out into the country with the little villages that still dot it, he'll find that a touch of folk mysticism still remains. I grew up with a distinct faith in such things as fairies and enchantments. My parents did not have a television when I was young, so my toddlerhood entertainment was crawling through the ranch lands hoping for a peek at the sprites my mother had mentioned or venturing out into the nearby woods atop my father's horse, his strong arms around me. And sometimes, when the weather turned cold and night intruded early, I'd sit in the den, eyes wide as I watched my mother perform her little spells. They were nothing serious, just trivial twists of light, color, and shadow, butterflies and birds and flowers that so vividly lit up the room on those dark nights. She'd tell stories with the lights, stories about princesses who lived in the flowers and brave knights transformed into birds.  
  
My father was always there, too. He never missed a performance. Sometimes he'd laugh at my reactions, his mossy green eyes-the one thing I inherited from him-lighting up. He loved Mom-perhaps too much. I never did hear the story of how my parents met, but I had always been reminded of the story where a farmer spied a fairy woman dancing and subsequently captured her for his wife.  
  
I don't remember any fighting, those terrible arguments the other kids at school were so frightened of. Of course, I was only four at the time Mom threw our things in the back of her truck. I do remember watching my father standing at the gate as we drove off.  
  
We lived with Grandma after that. I liked her. She was a sweet little old woman who was born, raised, and planned to die just outside of Burley, Idaho. She was cookies, pasta, cornbread, and hugs. She was also stories. Grandma told stories that exceeded even Mom's, stories about pioneers and the Shoshone people and jaguar spirits in the jungles of South America. She could make light and shadows dance, but she was more famous for her cures. She couldn't do much about cancer or anything like that, but she could fix little things.  
  
Grandma didn't understand why Mom divorced my father. It was the one thing they argued about.  
  
"I always liked Justin," Grandma would say as if her opinion was what the media desired. "He's a nice, good man. Honest and hard-working. No Shoshone or Chilean blood, but a good man just the same."  
  
Mom would just sigh and roll her dark eyes. "S?, Mama. But I want something more than that. Justin was boring. I want something more exciting. And Nevada needs something more."  
  
"You don't need more! Nevada would have been fine there. You always want too much. You won't even let Justin see his own daughter."  
  
This was when I would chime in. "I'm happy here. I don't need Daddy."  
  
"See? She doesn't need her father," Mom would say.  
  
"And she's happy here!" Grandma would shoot back.  
  
My contribution never settled the argument. I was always the median, but never the peace-maker.  
  
Our Burley experience lasted three long and happy years. For me, anyway. Then cancer reached Grandma, and the fourth year was nothing but hospitals and doctors and tears. But there were still cookies and pasta, cornbread and hugs, and stories until the day Grandma went to heaven.  
  
Then there was the city. Even when we were with Grandma, Mom would drive every morning to the city to work for her company, whatever that meant. When we moved there, I didn't mind it. It wasn't Burley, but it was exciting. And it seemed that Mom was satisfied there. She met a nice man who told her he loved her and bought her a ring. But the wedding never happened.  
  
Mom wanted to leave again, and I didn't want to go.  
  
"What about my friends?" I screamed, my twelve-year old lungs reaching their max. "What about what I want?"  
  
"You'll make new friends," she replied calmly. "And you don't even know what you want."  
  
I don't think she did.  
  
And so it was settled. We both left. She for wherever, and me back to my father.  
  
To be continued. 


	2. Stepmother

White Winter Ranch. Eight years had taken the name from my memory, if indeed I had ever known it. All I had during my time with Mom was a warm and vague memory of a home without a name. But now that I was back, it had one, carved into a little wooden sign swinging gently above the gate. White Winter Ranch. It was such a simple, country-ish name that I couldn't help but be charmed.  
  
"Is what you remember?" my father asked nonchalantly as he heaved two of my bags from the back of his truck. "We redid some of the fences. . . "  
  
"It's a lot bigger," I said in an effort to keep the conversation going. The ride from the bus stop had been primarily silent, stunted tête- à-tête between two individuals who had spent five years in each other's presence at most. Two individuals who happened to be related.  
  
My father had no such desire. He sighed and stared at me with those mossy-green eyes. Those were the only features that hadn't changed over the years. "I can't believe how big you're getting. You've grown inches since last Christmas."  
  
"Only one," I said. I turned my attention to the wood and brown- brick rambler I now stood in front of. "I remember the house."  
  
My father grunted, a neutral reply. "Yeah. We've remodeled, too. Mostly Ally's fetishes."  
  
Ally. A name only heard in passing whispers and phone calls, or jotted down on some bit of letter. My father's new bride of only seven months. A name without a face, opposite of the ranch.  
  
"I hope she likes me," I said. I hope you like me, Dad.  
  
"She'll love you. Says she always wanted a daughter."  
  
Oh, yes. A step-daughter on the verge of her teenage years. Everyone woman's dream.  
  
My father managed to balance a final bag in his arms with still enough mobility to snatch the door open. I suppose I could have helped, maybe opened the door or something, but it wasn't my home yet. I had no right to be breaking into other people's homes. He entered, but I hesitated, searching my memory for the house. I didn't get much.  
  
The inside of the house wasn't anything special. Nice, clean, well- decorated-probably Ally's doing. My father was too absorbed with the ranch of the outdoors, and the home had been left to the woman. Vanilla potpourri, mixed with the scent of baking chicken stir-fry and a cranberry- apple candle, gave life to the air. And there was something else, something familiar.  
  
Charms. Charms had protected Grandma's home as well as our apartment in the city. The ranch house was charmed. I couldn't have said what spells protected the place, for I had never had the talents of Mom and Grandma. But I could still sense them.  
  
"Justin, is that you?" called a voice from the kitchen. "Is she here?"  
  
And then she appeared, all blonde hair and brown eyes and cayenne- spiced stir-fry. Ally.  
  
I hated her immediately. I didn't think such hate was possible.  
  
My father took control of the situation with clueless authority. "Ally, honey, this is my daughter Nev. Nev, this is my wife Ally."  
  
I was rarely Nev. I was usually Nevada. Nev was for times before the divorce and for visiting holidays. No one else but my father called me Nev.  
  
"Nev," Ally said with gagging sweetness. "How pretty."  
  
"It's nice to meet you," I recited. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She was small, slender, and the color of sunlight. An elf. That's what she was. A traveler from Faerie, or the spirit worlds Grandma talked about. The wife the farmer had captured. My father had done it again.  
  
"We'll have to go shopping in town sometime," she said. "Get to know one another."  
  
I didn't want to.  
  
"Your room is at the north side," my father said. "Ally decorated it somewhat for you."  
  
"Not much," Ally said. "I didn't know what you liked."  
  
I remembered the room. It had once held a crib and Muppets. Then a little hand-carved bed-the Muppets remained. They were gone now. Now there was a full queen bed, beautifully hand-carved, with new pale green sheets. All it needed were blankets, including the quilt Grandma had made for me. A dresser stood dutifully near the window, which opened to the north horse pasture and the woods in the distance. Closet doors were freshly painted white, accenting the dark green carpet. Then there was a book case and a nightstand and nothing else.  
  
Except the mirror. Full-length and oval-shaped with a white frame. Closer inspection revealed carvings. Cute. It matched the closet.  
  
"Nice mirror, isn't it?" Ally had followed me. "I have one just like it. They're pretty old-not exactly heirlooms-but Justin touched up the frames. They're expensive."  
  
"Wow," I said, not sure what response she wanted. What sort of sane person made conversation about mirrors? "Thanks for letting me have one."  
  
"Of course, Nev. You may not use it much now, but in a couple years, when you grow up a little more. . . you'll find uses."  
  
Again, no sensible reply came to mind. "Thanks." Maybe she'd leave soon.  
  
"I don't want you to think you're butting in," she continued. "I'm exited to have you here. I've never had a child. I've a nephew, but he's not good for much. I know you still have your mother, but I do hope we can be friends."  
  
"One big happy family."  
  
"Exactly." She sighed happily and ran a finger through that blonde hair. "Well, the stir-fry is probably burning. It'll be ready soon, if you're hungry."  
  
With that, she left. I turned back to the mirror, wondering why she prized it so highly. Then I began unpacking. 


	3. Nephew

            If I learned one thing about Ally over the next few months, it was her fetish of apples.  A strange obsession, to say the least, but then again I suppose everyone has their lure.  Ally liked apples and those damned mirrors.  She had decorated the kitchen.  Entering it was entering a fiery orchard of reds and oranges and green leaves and just enough eggshell white to assure sanity.  That first night, apple-and-raisin pie, peaked with cinnamon, was dessert.  The same treat or something similar would be repeated at least thrice a week during apple harvest.

            I didn't mind.  It wasn't my business.  Ally was the woman of the home, and it was her right and pleasure to do whatever pleased her.  If she wanted to bake apple cobbler and primp herself in front of her own copy of the mirror, well, it kept her out of my way.

            The only thing I did mind was the orchard.  The real one, the kitchen brought to life.  Tiny, brown, fresh, green, and new.  My father had given it a home down the hill at the edge of the ranch property on a little ridge near the woods.  He presented it as part of the tour during my first week.  

We rode horses.  It wasn't like before, where I would be curled up in his arms as we rode the same horse.  That horse had died some years before.  I rode a grey filly and followed my father across the ranch with its endless pale pastures and corrals and sheds housing everything from riding equipment to heavy machinery to a collection of ATVs.  

"It's different than you remember, I'm sure," he repeated again and again, almost apologetic in his fashion.  "We've. . . we've done some remodeling. . . sold some land, bought some land."

"It's nice," I replied again and again.  "I really don't remember it, anyway, so this is what it is."  

"The orchard is new," he said once, near the end of the tour. "We planted it a week before the wedding, the boys and me, as a surprise for Ally.  It's small now, but in time we'll have plenty of apples."

Or Ally would.  I couldn't say why, but only a person like Ally could like such a place.

We stopped there for a moment, so my father could check the trees for whatever reason someone might need to do such a thing.  I hopped from the filly and stared intently at the trees, the innocent little saplings.  The air was different in the orchard, warmer, more alive.  In the way that decay is warm and alive.  I shook my head.  That was a silly thought.  

"What do you think, Nev?" my father asked, approaching me from around a bend in the path.  "It could be your orchard, too, if you'd like.  I'm sure Ally wouldn't mind."

Involuntarily I shivered.  "No thanks."

His face creased with worry.  "Are you getting sick?"

He really was a sweet guy.  "I'm fine.  But. . . I'd rather have a horse."

The worry disappeared and he laughed deeply.  "I agree with you there, Nev.  So would I!"  He climbed back onto his own horse. "In fact, you need a horse.  That'll get you out in the sun.  You're just so pale."

I returned the laugh.  "I'll never get tan. I've tried.  I think it's your fault."

"I suppose you're right.  Too much Norwegian blood."  My father was half Norwegian, half whatever muttish race America had dished to his father.  Grandma, on the other hand, had been half Chilean, half Shoshone.  The resulting genetic phenotypes for me were Grandma's dark hair and pale skin.  But only my eyes came from my father.  Grandpa had been a British immigrant. 

Who knew where Ally had come from.

During those first few months, Ally and I went on exactly one outing together.  She had laughed and chatted and bought me a few things, and still I hated her.  And she didn't like me, I could tell that much.  She didn't mind me being around, but she had no qualms about leaving me to my business.  She had her apple orchard; I had my horse.

Then, out of the blue, she intruded on my life with the use of her nephew.  

My friend Heidi from school was visiting.  We were in my room, completely out of the way, living in a mix of math homework and gossip.  Then Ally poked all that blonde hair through my door.

"Nev, honey!" she cooed.  "I brought someone I want you to meet!  Remember when I mentioned my nephew?"

Heidi glanced at me, a grin playing at her lips.  A mixed signal of boy-alert and that-woman-is-psycho.

I vaguely remembered something.  "Yeah."

"My sister and brother-in-law were passing through and decided to stop here and visit for an hour or so.  He needs someone near his own age, or we'll bore him out of his mind."

Heidi choked on a laugh.  Ally stepped out of the way and there he was.  I hated him instantly. Almost as much as I hated Ally.  He was about fourteen.  He was too tall and too lanky and too freckly with red hair poking haphazardly through a Utah Raptors cap.

"Nev, this is my nephew Hunter.  Hunter, this is Justin's daughter Nev and her friend Hattie.  Have fun!"  And then she was gone.

"Nev is a weird name," was Hunter's first brilliant comment.

"My full name is Nevada," I said softly, meeting his gaze.

He ignored that. "Hattie is a weird name, too."

If Heidi had ever thought the boy cute, she no longer did.  "It's Heidi.  Your aunt is an idiot."

"Don't you insult my aunt!" he said angrily.  But there was a look in his eyes.  He wouldn't say a word.

"You insulted our names," I retorted.

"At least I'm not named after a state."

"It means 'snow'."

"Hm."  He cast a rather bored gaze around the room and plopped down on the bed. "Nice place."  He glanced at the math book.  "This is so easy!"  He flipped through a few chapters and tossed it on the floor.

Heidi looked fit to kill.

He laughed, stood up, and crossed the room to the mirror.  "Nice.  Ally has one like it."

"Go look at hers," I muttered.

"Nah.  I like this one."  He pulled a rusted nail from the pocket of his means and dragged it about three inches over the mirror's surface.

"Hey!" I was on my feet now.

He glanced at me, laughed, and left the room.


	4. Orchard

"We're following him," I told Heidi fifteen minutes after Hunter's departure.  Ranting on Ally's nephew had seemed worthy about five minutes' discussion before a return to gossip and mathematics.  On the outside.  Inside, I was fuming.

            Heidi locked her eyes on me, playing down the tiny twist of a grin on her face.  "Ally won't care. . . will she?"

            Ally was no concern of mine.

            We snuck out the back door, past the front room where Ally sat laughing with a couple I supposed to be Hunter's parents.  They were like stuffed dummies, blank and staring from their seats.  So unlike Hunter.  I believe I preferred them.  My father was not there—he had apparently been lucky enough to escape.

            We stole an ATV from the shed—my father's old green Yamaha.  It was big, bulky, rusty—I loved it.  At least it had enough power to cross the ranch lands.  I let Heidi take the controls.  

            "I have more experience," she said.  I shrugged and latched onto her waist as she revved the too-noisy engine and blasted us from the shed, the two of us laughing like sugar-fed maniacs.

            Hunter was forgotten about the same time we found the southern pasture.  It held only one occupant:  a good-natured mare who was too old and too boring to care about anything but herself, including the ravens that blasted, startled, into the sky at our arrival.

            "We should take a couple of these to the dunes sometime, Nevada," Heidi suggested, her voice barely audible above the thunder of the engine.

            I whipped my head around to take in the ranch and the woods in the distance.  A strand of black hair threw itself down my throat. I spit it out.  "Here isn't good enough?"

            "Better than the village.  What about the woods?  Any good trails?  My brother says there is."

            "We only take horses, Dad and I."

            "Isn't that him over there?"

            I followed her gaze as she whirled the ATV around.  A minute figure on a horse seemed miles away, near the place where my father had planted the apple orchard.  I recognized the silhouette of the beat-up Stetson he always wore.  He and horse had paused staring in our direction.

            "That's him," I said, and we both waved.

            He returned the wave, then twisted around in the saddle to again face the orchard.  A smaller figure emerged on foot.  Even at such a distance I could see the vivid patch of red hair—the baseball cap had vanished.  My father, apparently satisfied, trotted off.  Hunter followed for a few yards, then stopped, waited, and darted back into the orchard.

            Heidi slowed the engine, and we came to a stop.  The horse granted us a look of mild curiosity, then returned to her meal.

            "He's playing in the orchard?" Heidi asked, bitterness on her tongue.  "How. . . weird.  You're not blood related to him, thank goodness."

            I laughed and slugged her in the arm.  "Let's go.  Dad probably told him to get out of there. Probably raking up the trees like he did the mirror."

            We had been driving around so long that a little closeness in proximity probably didn't phase Hunter.  We parked the ATV some ways off, then crept through the back of the orchard.  I hadn't been in it since my father had shown it to me, but the opportunity to return was too perfect.  The air filled my lungs, burning like acid.  I pushed it out and held my breath.

Heidi had paled slightly as well.  She squeezed closer to me, barely breathing.  "What is this place?"

"Belongs to Ally," I whispered. "Of course it's vile."

We continued through the lanes, never seeing Hunter nor hearing him.  No cracks of twigs, no rustle of leaves.  Not even birds or wind.  Just the cool aura of the apple trees.

"He's left," Heidi said, tugging at my arm.  "We'll go look for him somewhere else."

"We would have heard him leave," I insisted.

The words had barely left my mouth when the earth trembled.  I screamed.  Heidi, too startled to speak, fell to her knees.  The pounding came closer, closer. . . then the branches ripped apart to reveal Hunter, eyes wide.

"What are you doing in here?" he hissed.  "Ally and Justin said you never come here.  You shouldn't be here!"

I gasped.  The air was normal.  "You shouldn't be in here. . . my dad. . . "

Then his freckled face broke into a laugh. "You thought you could scare me!  I got you!"  And, with the immaturity a kindergartener would envy, he dashed into the outside.

Heidi, sill trembling, climbed to her feet, face red with fury. "What an idiot."

Her words barely registered.  "No one could be that loud," I muttered.  

"He sounded loud because you were scared."

"I thought it was an earthquake."

She frowned and pulled a few leaves from a tree, stared at them, and crumpled them in her fist. "This place is getting to you.  Let's get out of here."

Hunter and his parents visited a few times over the following years: Christmas, Thanksgiving, random visits like the first one.  He never stayed long, never gave me much attention before wandering outside.  Presumably that damn orchard.


	5. Roy

            I met Roy my junior year.  He sat two desks behind me in geometry or something like that—I never really noticed him as anyone but Roy Bornakis, the boy who sat two seats behind me.  A lot of girls liked him and the silver Jetta he drove.  His dad was Greek, his mom Shoshone—Grandma would have liked that.  The result of that union was what no one could deny as tall, dark, and handsome:  black curls and dark eyes and a nose that was quite lovely in shape.  Maybe he wasn't the cutest guy in school.  Maybe he wasn't the most popular.  But he held his own respectably.  Still, I didn't notice him.

            But he noticed me.  He struck up conversation in the halls and before class.  He picked up my pencil once—it had rolled back to him, attracted to what I did not yet see.  He stopped by the ranch one afternoon, his silver Jetta flowing like a murky river up the path from the village.

            I was riding in the pasture, giving my horse a quick exercise before I turned to homework.  My hair was a mess, dark and sweaty locks dripping from under a pink bandana.  My face probably wasn't much better, but I didn't care.  Indeed, I did not know Roy was there.  It was just me and my horse TJ and the pasture and the last of the day.  Then it was all that and Roy Bornakis leaning on the fence with a smile and fading sunlight in those dark curls.  

            "Hi," I said breathlessly.

            "Hi," he replied.  "You're a good rider."

            I smiled and ran a hand through TJ's tangled mane.  "TJ's a good horse."

            "He's amazing."  Roy pulled himself up onto the fence.  "I've ridden a horse."

            I knew what he was doing, and I liked it.  Roy was cute, for a boy who sat two seats behind me in geometry.  "It's easy.  Climb on with me and I'll show you."

           He sat behind me again, closer than a two-seat distance, so we could both hold the reins.  I liked the way he smelled.  I later learned it was that Michael Jordon cologne.  He had nice arms.  We circled the pasture nearly a dozen times, going over the basics of riding.  I almost wished TJ was white.  My knight and I on a white horse.

            "I think I get it," Roy finally said.  "It's pretty easy."

            "Of course it is."

            For our two month anniversary, I bought him a Beatles sweatshirt.  Heidi was with me while I wrapped it up.  It was difficult to do.  We both stood by my bed, looking at the yellow sweatshirt in its open box, white tissue poking from the sides, and the roll of Spongebob wrapping paper.

            "I'm trying to imagine how he'll look with it on," I said.

            "You'll see soon," Heidi urged.  "And you'll get to feel him in it."

            I liked that idea.  "But I want to see the sweatshirt for a long time.  I like the image in my mind."

            "Do you want me to wrap it?  Do you love the sweatshirt or Roy?"

            "For now, the sweatshirt is Roy."  I pulled the sweatshirt from the box and kissed it.  

            Heidi made a face and pulled it away.  "I'm wrapping it now."

            "One more thing."  I dropped to the floor and pulled a Sketchers shoebox out from under the bed.  Inside, among random scrapbook items and trinkets from Grandma and Mom, was a Ziploc bag.  Inside were various figures made from twigs and hemp and bits of fabric.  I pulled out a hemp-colored horse.

            Heidi laughed.  "A charm."

            "My grandmother made it," I replied.  "It brings good luck and safety to whoever holds it, she said.  The charm is stronger when it is given by someone who loves you.  And I love Roy!"  I tossed the horse on top of the sweatshirt and finally allowed Heidi to wrap the box.

            "Gift's ready," she sang.  "What about you?"

            I shot a look in the mirror.  I hadn't done much but curl my hair.  Supposedly we'd just be going out to eat—presumably Carl's Jr. or something, so I didn't want to look too fancy.  "Where's my lipgloss?"

            Heidi tossed it to me, and in two seconds I looked perfect.  Even the mirror seemed to shine its own approval.

            "Roy should be here soon," Heidi said, glancing at the clock.  "Let's go."

            I grabbed Roy's gift from the bed and followed her out the door.

            Ally was in the kitchen, as usual.  I could hear her humming to herself as we passed, some unrecognizable tune.  The smell of apple pie hung heavily in the air.    I hated it.  I hated her.  

            "Going out?" she called.  It wasn't her business.  She usually paid no attention to my comings and goings.

            "Roy's picking me up," I answered.

            "It's your anniversary, isn't it?"

            "Yeah."  I stared blankly at one of Ally's own charms hanging on the wall.  A crude doll made of dried apple leaves and apple blossoms and who knew what else.  It reminded me of something from that "Children of the Corn" movie.

            "What does she care?" Heidi murmured.

            "You're giving him something special, aren't you, Nev?"  It wasn't a question.  "One of your little trinkets?"

            Heidi gave a shrill giggle that she quickly stifled.  

            I didn't answer Ally.  I continued on to the front door.

            Roy and I didn't go to Carl's Jr.  We went to this sweet little Chinese place—not very fancy, but somewhat above Carl's Jr.  We sat next to the wall, under an ink sketch of a river and mountains.

            He gave me a bracelet—sterling silver with Austrian crystals sleeping in the metal band.  I loved it

            "It's beautiful," I told him, and extended my hand for him to slip the bracelet onto and to kiss.

            Then he opened his gift.  He loved the sweatshirt.  I could always tell when he liked something, for his face would light up and those dark eyes would widen.  "What's this?" he asked, gingerly picking up the horse as if he feared it would break.

            "Something my grandma made years ago.  A good luck charm, if you will.  Keep it on you and it will protect you."

            Roy smiled, entranced by the description, and slipped the horse into his pocket.  "I'll do that, Nev."


	6. Run

"I don't want Hunter here all summer!"  I barely recognized my own voice, high and harpy-like, demanding the consideration of the breakfast table conversation.

Ally was the first to react, and with the shredding glare of a lioness so imperceptible to my father her eyes were on me, her smile thin, patient, and bittersweet.  "He's starting college in the fall, Nev.  He needs a job."

"Hunter's a good kid," my father said, not meeting my eyes, something rare.  "I offered him the job last week, and he's ecstatic about it."

"I didn't need to find out just this morning." I stared angrily at my waffles, wishing they would come to life and be my allies.  "Just now."

"You two have always pretty much ignored each other," Ally put in, spooning another cup of apple jelly onto her own waffle.  "Why will two months be any different?"

"I agree," my father put in.  "Besides, it's about time you and Hunter got to know one another.  The summer would be plenty of time for that."

I did not want to get to know Hunter.  I did not want him around.  The coming summer was to be about Roy and me and picnics and horses and kisses and no one else.  Perhaps it really wouldn't matter.  Hunter would do his chores and then go off to that apple orchard he loved so much.  I'd never see him.  But then, as he did chores. . . what force on earth would keep him away?

"He'll arrive next Saturday," Ally said.  "I'll prepare a guest room.  Please be a polite host, Nev."

I hated the way she looked at me.

That Saturday, Roy and I hid when Hunter arrived.  We watched from the shelter of a barn loft as a rusty Chevy meandered from the main road.  So Hunter had wheels.  Impressive.  Perhaps it would mean he'd leave when he had the chance.

"He doesn't look so bad, babe," Roy said, squinting behind his binoculars.  "Maybe a little weird, but. . ."

"He's very weird," I muttered, pulling the binoculars from him.  "Heidi used to think he was cute, but. . ."

I caught sight of Hunter, now shaking hands with my father.  He had grown since I had last seen him—grown a lot.  And yet that same boyish villainy was evident.

Roy laughed.  For some reason he thought my hatred of Hunter was funny.  I couldn't decided whether to be mad or kiss him as he was so adorable when he laughed.  "What do you have against the dude?"

I shrugged.  It was like color:  one couldn't describe it, and another had to see it for herself.  Roy would understand once he went near Hunter.  The guy was strange, unreal.  Ally-like. I went with that. "He reminds me of my step-mother."

"Ah, yes.  The wicked witch of the west and her nephew."

It was my turn to laugh. "Exactly."

"You're cute when you laugh."  He caught my lips and pulled me away from the view.

"Mm." I giggled and kissed him back. "Honey, you're ruining my plot."

"You're plotting to kill Ally's nephew?"

"Wouldn't be too bad."  I picked up binoculars again.  A ray of sun struck the glass, nearly blinding me.  Hunter's eyes darkened as he turned in my direction.  I swore and dropped the binoculars.  One might have thought he had seen the glare.  He wasn't looking that way.  He was looking at me.  I could feel him doing so.  "He saw me."

"How could he?"

I shook my head.  "He just. . . does.  He's weird."  Hunter was still watching. He had been aptly named.  He was like something in the wild, considering the best attack on spotted game.

Roy managed a worried smile and took my hand. "I think you've been worrying about this long enough. Let's go for a walk."

We left the musty air of the barn and strolled down toward the pastures.  Roy was right.  I was too upset about Hunter.  Ridiculously upset.  As if a little thing like him mattered. I was turning into Mom.  But Roy made it okay.  His hand held mine and I could smell his cologne.  He made Hunter leave my mind.

"There's your step-mom's orchard," Hunter suddenly said.

I hadn't realized we were approaching it.  I hadn't realized we had been walking in its direction.  But there it was, green and flashy, spring blossoms still holding their claims to the darkening leaves.  "That's it," I said softly.

"You said Hunter likes it."

"Yeah. I think he likes it more than Ally."  I twisted my head around, almost expecting to see Hunter approaching his beloved orchard.  "He'll be coming here first chance he gets."

Roy's grip tightened, and I looked up to see a smile I had learned as dangerous.  "Let's go hide there."

I tried to pull away. "What for?!"

The grin broadened, stopping only to plant a kiss on my cheek. "Babe, we can surprise him.  Show him who has the upper hand."

"In the orchard?"  I didn't want to enter it.  I hadn't gone in since the first time I had met Hunter.

"It'll be all right, Nevada," he said soothingly.  "If he's as weird as you say, we could have some serious fun."

"Roy, you're an idiot." But I was the idiot. I let him drag me into that orchard.  The branches, shielded in green, seemed to open up in a scarily-alluring welcome.  The smell was there, so alive and dead at the same time.  I felt the air breathing, ready to crush me if I entered.  And yet I did.

Roy did not seem to notice anything, and his smile became wider and wider and we traveled deeper and deeper into the orchard.  He finally stopped in the middle of a path and gazed reverently at the trees around him.  "This is amazing.  How come we never come here?"

I squeezed in hand and drew in a deep breath.  The air. . . it wasn't too bad.  It tasted like apples.  "Don't you feel it?"

Roy blinked, breaking his own enchantment. "Feel it?  Feel what?"  Realization set in. "You don't. . . sense anything?"

"I do," I said gratefully.  "But I don't know what it is.  I'm not like my mother or grandma.  They'd have been able to tell."

"Do you think we should leave?"

"I. . . I don't know if it's bad. It's just. . . scary."   My heart stopped as I spotted something on a branch and pulled it off.  "See this apple?  It's almost ripe. That's way too soon.  It's only early summer."  I threw the apple on the ground.

He laughed nervously. "Wow.  That's. . . that's definitely freaky, Nevada.  It's gotta be a prank."

I lifted my eyes to the branches above us.  Here and there, the blood-red gleam of a nearly-ripe apple could be seen, about a half-dozen in all.  I took another breath.  The air was alive, super alive.  I exhaled and pushed into the trees.  "Let's just go."  Then, after about twenty feet, the air crushed in and I stopped. "I don't think we should."

"You said you wanted to leave."  Roy's voice sounded distant, and I thought I heard a trace of its echo.

I whirled around.  He was still here, right behind me.  With a cry I flung my arms around him.   "I'm not sure how to get out," I confessed.

"It's an orchard," he said slowly, rubbing his fingers up and down my back.  "We just have to keep going in one direction."

"I don't dare."  I felt my heart pounding against his chest.

"Babe, you're scaring me."

"I'm telling the truth."  Once again, I couldn't explain it.  For this moment, the orchard went on forever.  "I don't know how to get out."

"You just leave," said a new voice, cold and angry.  

"Ma'am," Roy said suddenly.

Ally stood down the path, her shaded straw hat nearly the color of her hair.  I couldn't see her eyes, and I didn't want to.  "I don't like people playing in here," she said simply.

"We're leaving, ma'am," Roy said, pushing me before him.

I glanced back at Ally as the two of us walked off.  She knelt in the dirt, frowning, and picked up the apple I had dropped.

Sure enough, the orchard ended.  But I couldn't shake that feeling.

Three days later, my father didn't arrive at the breakfast table.  I entered the dining room to find Hunter pulling Pop Tarts from the toaster and Ally over the stove.

"Where's Dad?" I asked.

Hunter took a large bite of Pop Tart and winked at me.  "What's up, Nevada?"

Ally didn't even bother that much. "Don't you remember? He and that friend of his are taking the horses up to the Tetons."

"He never said anything about that." He hated to leave Ally for anything.

"Well, that's what he did," she snapped.

"Don't worry," Hunter said.  "I already know how to handle things. The ranch will be in good hands for two days."  He licked a smudge of blueberry pulp from the edge of his lip.  "Want the other one?"

I didn't want Ally's cooking and took the Pop Tart.

"Fried apples and potatos," he mouthed, nodding at Ally.  Then he laughed.

I didn't know what to think.  He was making fun of his beloved aunt's cooking.  Maybe he wasn't all bad.

"You two haven't talked much over the years," Ally said. "Justin took care of things before he left.  Why don't you two go for a walk or something and get better acquainted?"

"Great idea, Ally," Hunter exclaimed before I could protest.

I sighed and took a bite. I did like blueberry, as much as I didn't like Hunter.  And yet. . . we might as well take a walk.  "But I had plans with Heidi. . ."

"One hour, Nevada. I promise."  He sent me the smile I hated.  The one he had first used on me.

"Fine," I said slowly.  And before I knew it, I had my hat and shoes on.

Hunter didn't say much as we walked, at least nothing important.  He asked me about school and if I were ready to be a senior and what colleges I was thinking of applying to.  To be polite, I asked him similar questions about his approaching college semester.  But the conversation was sporadic and soon died away as we neared the woods.

"Pretty, huh?" he asked.  "I've never been in them."

I shrugged.  "They're just woods."

"Woods are scary, though."  He absent-mindedly pulled a knife from his pocket and began to flick the blades in and out.  All those fairy tales, most of the scary stuff happens in the woods."  

"I've never really thought about it," I replied, watching the blades flickering in and out of the handle with mild interest.  "And these are just a few trees.  Nothing much else."

"I guess so."  He stuck the knife back into his jeans.  "Listen, Nevada. I'm sorry I've been a brat to you before."

"I don't mind," I said quickly. I didn't know why I was on the stupid walk and I certainly didn't want the meaning to be an apology.  Not even a sincere one, at that.

"Then I won't mention it.  Hold your breath as you go past the trees."

I did as he said, and the morning sunlight was quickly eaten by shade.  "Hunter, you're weird."

He took it as a compliment, his face going as red as his hair.  "Thank-you."

I said nothing else as we continued further into the trees.  There was a path all the village kids used—we soon strayed from it.  I still said nothing.

Hunter pulled the knife out again.  The blades flicked in and out.

I wanted to tell him to put it away.  I didn't.

Patches of sun fell in from the overhanging canopy, lighting the ground.  One fell on a dead tree whose trunk had twisted horizontally. 

"I thought we could have a picnic."

We just had breakfast. I wanted to tell him that.  Instead, I sat next to him on the branch.  He still held the knife.

Something invisible tore at my heart, at my mind.  I had to leave. I had to leave now.  I wanted to scream.  I could feel the scream in me, clawing at my lips.  Then it was out.  I screamed and screamed until Hunter slapped his hand over my mouth.

"You have to leave," he hissed.  He was serious.  A quality I had never seen on him before.

"I couldn't talk," I whispered, pushing his hand away.

He didn't seem to hear me. "You have to leave.  Don't go back to the ranch. Not yet, anyway."

"What did you do to me?"

"The Pop Tart.  Ally put something in it before you ate it."

A charm. One of Ally's stupid little charms.  I was disgusted.  I had indeed eaten Ally's breakfast. "You knew?"

"Of course I knew."

My eyes flew wildly over the trees around us.  I was afraid Ally would appear.  "She let you control me.  That's why I went."

"She knew you wouldn't go with me otherwise."  He muttered something silently.  "She told me after I arrived Saturday.  She said you were in the orchard.  She also knows about your grandma's charms.  She's been watching me."

"She caught my boyfriend and I in the orchard." Breath caught in my throat. "There were these weird apples. . ."

"They're not for mortals, those apples."

"Mortals!"  I pushed away from Hunter, nearly toppling from the trunk. "Ally!  What is she?!"

"The closest thing you'll understand is a changeling," he said, steadying me.  "You've heard of them."

I nodded.  Grandma had spoke of them when she read me fairy tales.  "The fairies take a human baby and put one of their own in the baby's place.  Ally's.. . one of those?"

"Not a changeling, but close.  I'll explain it later.  You have to leave."

"What about you?"

"My mother's one as well.  I'm half mortal."

I had to be dreaming.  Hunter's face and the trees and the ground seemed to swirl.  This couldn't be real.  "I don't understand."

He kept glancing behind him, toward the ranch, before returning his gaze to me.  He was like an animal locked in a cage.  "I don't understand everything myself.  She only tells me so much.  But your mother and grandmother. . . it has something to do with them."

"My grandma's dead and my mom's in British Columbia," I said.

"Ally said she knew from the time she saw you."

"Knew what?"

"I don't know!"  His voice was so loud it sent birds shooting from the trees.  "And then she saw you in the orchard and. . ."  He took a deep breath. "She sent me to kill you."  With an angry cry, he flung the knife into the trees.  "Just go!"

Sickness rushed through me.  I gingerly slid from the trunk, collapsing on the mossy ground.  I could see nothing but that mixture of black and red that nausea brings on  "You wanted to kill me."

"I couldn't."  He took my hand and thrust something warm and hard into it. "Take this and run."

I found myself nodding.

"Run!" He hissed, pulling me to my feet.

I ran.


	7. Forest

I ran. I ran into trees, ran into a chaotic blur of black and brown and green and every texture imaginable that fused into a murky singularity I could barely perceive. My heart pounded at my ribs till I felt they might crack and cut into the burning fire that was my lungs. Every part of my body ached with fatigue and a painful surge of adrenalin. The wind caused by my own running bit at my face, and I feared blood would soon spill. I couldn't think straight. T he only thing I heard was "Run." Sometimes I saw Hunter's face, commanding to me to leave and to stay far away from the ranch and everything else. Oh, hell, what was I doing?

The object Hunter had given me remained clasped in my hand. It was still warm. Too warm, and growing warmer with each passing moment. Unconsciously I squeezed it; it did not give way much. Then, slowly, something like a pulse throbbed from it. The green of the passing trees dimmed and brightened at the same time. Something caught at my feet, and I fell. The dirt and rough roots of the earth scratched blood from my arms.

"Get up," said a voice that could have sounded from the air or my mind; I couldn't tell which. Yet it seemed to be Hunter's voice. Or Mom's. Or Roy's.

"How much further?" I begged in the medium the voice had used. No answer came, and I climbed to my feet. Hunter's gift remained in my hand. My arms stung. My entire body stung. I returned to a run, faster than before.

This is insane, said another voice. Me. Hunter's insane. You're insane, Nevada. 

But it was too late to stop. The forest colors whirled past me, around me, through me. Branches snagged at my clothing and hair. My lungs screamed for air.

And then I stopped. Or something stopped me. For some strange twist of logic and physics, or perhaps the simple limitations of the human body, I couldn't go further. Grateful, I collapsed, panting. I squeezed my eyes shut, unwilling to look around me. Where was I? Was I even in Idaho? With my free hand I touched the soil. Warm. Warm like the other thing I held. My nails dug into the ground, seeking for some stability. They wanted Roy's hand. I wanted Roy. I wanted him so bad. My hand moved further ahead till it touched whatever had stopped me. 

It was nothing solid. Or if air could be solid, could be felt, then it would be that type of solid. With a final gasp, I opened my eyes. It was like night, though all logical told me it wasn't yet noon. How long had I been running? Whatever the reason, it couldn't yet be nightfall. But the boughs of the trees were so close they intertwined again and again until origins were impossible to know. Leaves, huge and dark green, formed a jaded roof blocking all sunlight. And whatever it was in front of me. . . that was invisible. In front of me were only trees. I pressed my hand further in. It was like pushing into a cloud of dry ice, dry ice whose particles were as close together as anything could be and still be a cloud. It was cold, icy cold. Not the deadly frost of dry ice, but the chill of winter wind and icicles. It was electric. Charged particles swam past my hand, only momentarily delayed by the obstacle. It was alive. It was enough to stop me.

"Run," the voice said again. Definitely Hunter this time. 

I yanked my hand back and stared at it. The slight rush of electrons still tingled over the skin, but there seemed to be no lasting harm. My lungs did not ache as much as before, so I stood up and pressed my face against the invisible cloud. Tingly and cold. I could adjust. I took a step back, still seeing nothing. 

This was completely crazy. 

The object Hunter had given me throbbed with greater intensity. I finally opened my hand.

An apple. Not a real apple, at least not any real apple I had ever seen before. It was small, the size of apples when they are first recognizable. But all other aspects were that of a mature apple. And it was gold. Not yellowish-gold, but gold-gold. Not just the fruit, but the stem and perfect leaf were gold as well. 

I gazed at it, my mind a whirl. Then the anger began to build. This was it? An apple? Couldn't Hunter have given me anything useful? I wasn't sure if it was even edible. Another enchanted piece of food, like the breakfast Pop-tart.

"Run," I heard again.

"Hunter, what have you done?" I muttered. I clasped the apple in my hand again and stared before me. The view before me was no different than that behind and around me. Except for the cloud which I couldn't see. With a deep breath, I extended the hand with the apple before me and pushed through. Ice surrounded me, the feeling so real I would not have been surprised to see the forming ice surrounding me. Electricity filled my body, electrons and whatever other particles swimming past me and through me. I felt invisible myself. I felt as if I was no longer connected, hands, feet, head, heart all working separately. 

And then it was over. I was out. Warm summer air touched my skin. Leaves rustled in a breeze somewhere above me. There were trees, huge and leafy with branches so long they swept near the ground despite the fact they were not willows. My heart skipped a beat. I couldn't even recognize the species. My father had taught me something about the trees of Idaho. And of course there were all the common ones everyone recognized. But these I had never seen before. They were enormous-not Redwood or anything like that, but bigger than anything I had seen on an average day. I looked behind me. There it was, a break in the trees. There were species I knew, and then there were the new ones, gigantic and green. 

This couldn't be real. I had to be dreaming. For some reason, that thought calmed me. That's what everyone did in dreams, right? Once they realized what it was, the dream was theirs to enjoy. And so I continued forward. It was as dark as ever, but near the leaf roof a hint of sunlight somewhere beyond sparkled. It was rather romantic, and I wished again that Roy was with me. I was the girl in the fairy tale lost in the woods, and Roy was my Prince Charming. He needed to come rescue me from this forest and from Ally and Hunter.

There was no path, not that I expected one. Instead, grass and wildflowers sprung from the occasional ground that appeared between the trees' huge roots. The plants moved away as I walked, almost out of respect rather than for fear of their lives. Moving plants. How nice for a dream.

I must have walked for hours, waiting for something: to wake up, for someone to appear, for something. Yet I enjoyed it just the same. Walking is different from running, peaceful, relaxing, a chance to enjoy the scenery. Scenery in dreams is always nice. But if it was a dream, why wasn't I waking up? For I did not wake up. But something appeared.

The trees gave way suddenly, and there it was. A small house, nestled next to a large tree, separated from the rest of this strange world by a stream cutting through the earth. The house was technically a hut, but I felt inspired to name it a house. It was like a tree itself; it seemed as if the lower trunks of several large trees h ad been hollowed where they grew, then connected with bits of wood and leaf. The roof, I couldn't see what that was made of, for it was covered with freshly fallen leaves. Still green. For all I knew, they grew there.

Civilization, I thought. Someone, real or dream, lived in these woods. With a joyful cry I darted toward the house, pounded on the bark door, and waited. Minutes passed, and no one came.

A gust of wind struck my back, and I automatically turned. Something had come with the wind. A voice, tiny and echoing.

"Who's there?" I heard myself asking.

Whispers. Another gust of wind. Echoes of laughter. Then, the doorknob slowly turned, and the door opened.

"Hello?" I called. "Hello? I'm lost. I was wondering if you could help me?"

Wind blew into the house with me. I found myself in a surprisingly large room, completely and perfectly round. It was bare save for a crudely hewn table, a stone fireplace, and a pile of animal pelts. The floor was covered by a carpet of soft leaves.

"Hello?" I called again.

That's when exhaustion hit me. The fatigue of running caught up with me. I was tired, so very tired. 

The door slammed shut. I didn't care. I made my way over to the stack of furs, leaned against it, and fell asleep.

  
  
  
  
  
  



	8. Tso Ape

I'm not sure how long I slept; it seemed ages to me, ages of peaceful darkness scattered with visions of Ally's face. She wanted to attack me, she wanted me dead. But in the dream she could not even see me. Her eyes searched the darkness, seeing everything but myself. I was safe, locked in my little cave of darkness.

Then, slowly, I awoke. The sleep had been so comforting that I almost couldn't bare to leave it, but I couldn't sleep forever. I yawned and blinked away the remains of sleep. 

A dream. Perhaps it had all been one big awful nightmare.

Yet there I was, on the dirt floor resting against a stack of soft animal skins. Hunter's warning echoed through my head. It had all been real. It was the same cottage I remembered. Except now a small fire flickered in the center of the room without burning anything near it, and a soft breeze wrinkled the leaf carpet.

Now wide awake, I was on my feet. Someone had entered while I had slept. I gazed around the single room for the slightest sign of motion, feeling like Ally in my dream. It was difficult, for the cottage was dim despite the fire. "Hello?"

Something whispered in the shadows, then laughed. Yet I could see nothing. The place was alive. Alive and dead all at the same time. Was I dead?

Then, the shadows against the wall seemed to solidify, like mist freezing. An edge of shadow changed and moved, and the leaves beneath it stirred and whirled into the air toward the edge of the firelight. And the shadow thing appeared, though not was much darkness as I appeared. If shadow grew in the form of a tree, that's what it was. He, for I suddenly felt inspired to call it a he, hopped on two long feet like tangled tree roots, though its similar hands were so long they could be easily used to move the body. Knotted weeds prevented me from telling where the head separated from the stumpy body, but two large orange eyes blinked at me from the wood-like face. The creature, no more than three feet tall, blended in with the cottage, and the entire forest I had seen, a mix of grey and green and brown.

I stared at the creature in amazement, nearly forgetting what I had been through. He was absolutely the strangest thing I had ever seen, almost nightmarish. A thought flickered across my mind asking me why I wasn't afraid, but I was more curious than frightened.

"Who are you?" I finally managed to ask.

The huge eyes blinked again, reminding me of an owl's. Then the crooked mouth twisted into a what I recognized as a smile, jagged and strong like the bark of a tree. From behind him came the faint, familiar laughter I had heard.

Did he even speak my language?

"I should ask you the same question, Daga," he replied in a voice surprisingly smooth. "You have intruded our home."

Daga. The Shoshone word for "friend". "I.. I'm sorry," I stammered. "I was looking for help, and I found the cottage. . "

"We know," he said. "We were when you entered."

The strange voices and laughter, like bells in the darkness. "I didn't see you."

Laughter again, warm, like the fire. "We're not always visible to mortal eyes, Daga. We saw that you were tired, so we did not bother you."

"Who is we?"

"My brothers," he replied. 

One my one, the shadow materialized into creatures similar to the first one. Some were taller, some more slender, some shorter, some stockier. But all were the same mysterious mix of shadow and plant with the same friendly expressions.

This was insane, I thought again. Absolutely insane.

"I am Semeg," said the first one, spreading is twig-like arms out. "And these are my brothers: Puihigatie, Sohobi, Ondembiti, Yebani, Beaichehku, and Izape." Each made the same gesture as his name was called. 

"We are the Tso'ape," Yebani said.

"Tso'ape?" The word, familiar, bit at my mind. "Ghosts?"

"We are not ghosts, for we are not mortal," Yebani replied. "We prefer spirits, people of the trees and the other realm into which you have stumbled, Daga called Dakabi."

Shaking my head, I sat down upon the stack of pelts. "I don't understand how I even came here."

The creature called Izape twisted his hand, and the golden apple Hunter had given me appeared between his fingers. They were so branch like the apple might as well have grown from them. "You brought this with you, did you not? For no one can wander into this world without a key."

I stared at the apple, strangely alive in the firelight. "Hunter gave that to me," I whispered. "He gave it to me and told me to run." 

"It told us your name," Semeg said. "Nevada. Or Dakabi, in our tongue."

I nodded, still gazing at the apple. How could something like it speak? "Yes, Nevada is my name."

"This Hunter must be a friend, then, Daga," Izape said. He tossed the apple in the air and caught it again. "For we the Tso'ape have sworn to protect all those who come to us."

Protection. I took a deep breath, squeezing the furs between my fingers. "I'm not even sure why I need protection."

Semeg nodded. "Your friend would not have sent you here without a reason. Beaichehku, prepare Dakabi food. She must be hungry."

The food of a different world? I did not know what to think. Yet I hadn't eaten since the Pop-Tart. I nodded my thanks, and the one called Beaichehku disappeared. The he reappeared, holding a wooden platter with berries. They tasted delicious, yet nothing I recognized.

"Tell us your story, then," Semeg said.

I didn't know what else to do. "I was with my stepmother's nephew, Hunter. He took me into the forest, and told me my stepmother was going to kill me. . ." Before I could stop myself, I told the creatures everything I could think of concerning Hunter and Ally.

"Of our world, then," Puihigaite mused. "It is true what your friend said. Folk of our realm sometimes enter the mortal world. Some are very powerful spirits. Perhaps your friend will come look for you. Until then, you will stay with us." 


	9. Bird

The Tso'Ape were kind, no doubt the kindest creatures I had ever met.  But the kindness they shared with me was not the normal, overpowering friendliness of the outside world I had grown accustomed to, but a more quiet, loving respect that needed little direct communication to give.  After the initial meeting, their vivid interest in me waned.  But it was not a boredom they expressed.  They had accepted me into their world willingly and now saw me as a part of it.  Perhaps a stranger part, but part of them just the same.  I finished the berries Beaichehku had brought me, enjoying their sweet flavor and dark color.  The Tso'Ape did not wait for me to finish, but scurried around their home in a whirl of shadow.  They made little noise in their motion, no more than the crackling sound of a strong wind through leafy branches.  For a long time I watched them, curious to what they were doing yet unable to know.

All the logic in the world told me that I should be deathly frightened, near or even in the safe wild haven of hysteria, but instead I felt a sense of calm familiarity yet I knew for certain I had never been in such a place.  There was a smell, unfamiliar, but warm and trusting that whirled through my mind searching for something to cling to.  Grandma's, this place was.  Her old home outside of Burley with her charms and hexes and stories of South America.  And these. . . these Tso'Apo. I had recognized them from her stories.  The literal translation was ghosts, but in Grandma's stories they had been spirits, playful and protective creatures that haunted the woods, watching over the good of heart who crossed through there.  As I had grown up I had realized that the stories themselves could be little more than stories, but the Tso'Ape had embedded themselves into me, and I realized that I had ever stopped believing in the shadow tree creatures.  Indeed, they were real, as real as this place, wherever it was.  

The berries were more than delicious.  They seemed life, energy, and after a few minutes I felt my awful fatigue fade as blood rushed through me once again.  I watched the blur of shadows in the cottage for a time, then carefully stood up. I think I was afraid of knocking one of the Tso'Ape as they rushed past me.  The gesture seemed safe, and I gave the best curtsy I could muster.

"Thank-you," I said loudly.  My voice seemed strange, fake, like that of a bad actor's.  I wasn't sure of the rules of protocol among such folk.  "I think I'll go for a little walk.  To stretch my legs properly.  They feel so cramped from running."  Even worse.

One of the Tso'Ape stopped, lines of mist still clinging to his outline.  "A walk?" he echoed strangely, eyes suddenly shining.  "Outside?"

"Yes."

The other six slowed.  I noticed that nothing visible had been done in the cottage.

The Tso'Ape, very grave, shook his head. "Is that so wise?  After the story you have told us, Dakabi?"

"I will be safe," I assured them, feeling rather nervous myself.  "What can go wrong?"  The truth was that I wanted out of the hut for a moment, to properly examine this strange world.

He studied me for a long time, dark eyes shifting as much as his body.  Finally, he gave what I took to be a sigh, low and breathy like thunder.  "Be wary then, Dakabi.  The lands around our home are protected by us, but even then there can be danger, for we truly have no lands but this wood.  You must watch yourself.  Izape!"

One of the Tso'Ape bowed. "Yes, Brother Semeg?"

"You will watch Dakabi.  Do not follow her closely, I doubt she will appreciate that."

There was a small fire of laughter.

"I shall stay far away unless Dakabi calls for me," Izape said solemnly.  "She is under my protection."

I felt myself blushing.  To think that I was under the protection of these spirits!  And yet I felt some comfort at the thought that Izape would be around.   I had always felt myself independent, but after what Hunter had told me, I didn't dare rely on that.  "Thank-you, Izape," I said softly.

A heavy mist hovered over the ground outside, steaming up from the stream and nearly clouding over the trees. I stepped into the mist, letting it wash over me. I felt so filthy from sweat that the moisture was refreshing. Not as refreshing as a proper bath, but. . . I glanced around me, but Izape was impossible to find.  I had the feeling that it was not my choice to see the Tso'Ape; they appeared when they wanted to.  They were part mist themselves.  I kept walking, unsure of where I was going.  If I became lost, I'd let Izape lead me back.  The mist eventually faded, and the gigantic trees with their twisting branches extended all around me like a cage, one I could walk through.  It was highly romantic, I decided. My heart twinged in need for Roy.  Where was he now?  Why wasn't he with me?  

I sighed deeply, missing him.  Hunter said he would try and return here.  Perhaps then, he could bring Roy with him. If that was safe.  No. Roy could handle anything.  There was no room for doubt.

I stopped before what seemed to be the oldest tree around.  A giant, thick thing, gnarled and twisted in bark, roots, and boughs.  Moss covered the lower trunk for at least a foot above my head. I placed a hand gingerly on a root.  Surprisingly, the tree was warm.  I jerked my hand away.  The branches far above rustled and a shape appeared, black and feathery and sleek.

 A bird!  Something familiar, though the species of the bird upon closer sight might change that.  Still, it was a bird, alive.  It swooped up through the leaf canopy, disappearing.  Then it was back, plunging toward me.

"Dakabi!:

I screamed as the shadowy face of Izape appeared just in front of me, eyes blazing from his wood-like skin.  

"Dakabi, you must return!  They've seen you!"  His voice crackled like a bonfire.

"Seen me?"  My eyes whirled back to the black bird.  It was gone, but the leaves above still swung.  "Who?"

"Silence!"  He pressed a hand over my mouth. It smelled like the forest and was rough like bark.  "We must return. Now."

Startled, I let Izape lead me back to the cottage.  He let me go, then bounced before me, rabbit-like.

Once inside, Izape summoned the others to attention.  I leaned against the wall, wondering what had happened.  Izape spoke quickly, in a language I didn't understand, all the while the others listened, occasionally chiming in with a comment or question.

Semeg finally turned to me, deadly seriously.  "Why didn't you tell us who you were, Princess?"


	10. Princess

"Why didn't you tell us who you were, Princess?"

Princess?  The word may as well have been another language as I collapsed back against the dry logs of the wall, the remaining bark scratching at my bare skin.  Princess.  What was that?  A meaningless title of royalty?  A pet name?  A word tossed about like candy between teeny-bopper girls?  All of those definitions in more. . . but not me.  I would have laughed. I should have laughed.  Clearly the Tso Ape were mocking me by their strange kindness.  Humor wasn't altogether foreign to them.  But the looks on their shadowy faces were more akin to a funeral than a nickname for their new human friend.  It was those expressions that frightened me and drove that awful stab of fear into my heart like those poor victims finally sentenced at court for a crime they did and did not do.  Princess.  Now it was a dirty word.  And then it was gone, leaving my head a fog.  The laugh finally came, cutting and false.  "I'm not a princess."

No sign of even a thought of believing me.  They blinked their round glowing eyes, solemnity all the stronger.  "But the tree," Izape said.  "The bird came for you, Dakabi."

"The bird in the tree?" I ventured.  It had been just a bird, swooping like black fire among the branches.  I saw it again in my mind, as clear if I had been there.  The precision frightened me, and I saw more that I did not remember.  The bird, large and black, a dark knife through the air….

"Yes, the bird in the tree," one creature said.  "The bird's name is Jeribah.  He is a sentinel, a spy.  Long ago he swore an oath against a certain tribe of this forest.  He swore to use his magic to kill each member of the tribe.  Many of them died by Jeribah's terrible magic…." His voice softened as he watched me, bewildered.  "This is new to you.  We should have known when you came to us.  You did not know anything then."

"But neither did we," said another Tso Ape.  "Until Izape told of Jeribah."

Jeribah?  Dead tribes?  What was this?  I hated the way they looked at me, like I was some fragile china doll, too rare to touch or even properly protect.  And I didn't want their protection.  I didn't want it at all.  I wasn't stupid; I knew what moment of truth they were building up to with all their strange talk of old stories that couldn't possibly concern me.

"You tell her too much, Sohobi, Ondembiti!" Semeg announced, silencing the room with a swift slash of his hand through the air.  "Our Dakabi is frightened!"

"But she needs to hear it!" Sohobi persisted, awkwardness forgotten.  "If what Izape saw was true. . . Jeribah as appeared again, as he has not done for centuries!  The old tribe is not dead, for Jeribah has sensed one of its people and has motioned for her death!"

"He is right," Izape said, locking eyes with Semeg.  "Dakabi is our princess then."

Semeg wasn't pleased.  "I realize she is our princess.  But what protection can we offer her here?  We are but the Tso Ape.  What is our power compared to that of Jeribah and those like him?"

"I will help you!"

I did not hear nor see the door open; I did not need to, for it didn't.  And yet Hunter was there, suddenly tall and menacing in the tiny cottage, too big to be allowed.  My mind rushed back years, to a day with Heidi in the apple orchard.  The pounding, the trees. . . Hunter had been there as well.  Whatever magic he possessed had been used that day.  

"Intruder!" Semeg screeched.

I screamed as the air blazed with the hot colors of fire, colored whispers of flame burning the air.  Yet I felt no heat.

Hunter yelped and jumped back against the door as the flames sped towards him.  Whatever illusion he had cast was gone, and in that strange figure's place was a hapless boy hiding from fire.

"You are not allowed to enter this dwelling!" Semeg continued.  "Leave at once!"

"I can enter this home when I am needed," Hunter stammered.  His body shook with fear as he tried to stand as tall as possible.  But his voice did not lie about his lack of bravery.  "Your air fire is just a deception."

"Fool," Izape muttered.

With a crackling laugh, Semeg snapped his twiggy fingers, and the air was clear.  "Who are you, intruder?"

"A friend of Nevada's," he said with surprisingly volume.  "I brought her to this forest from the mortal world.  I thought she might find the Tso Ape."

For the first time since he had entered the cottage I looked at him.  He seemed to out of place in jeans, t-shirt, and that silly cap.  But, I supposed, no more out of place than I might seem.

In unison the Tso Ape turned their eyes to me.  "Is this true, Dakabi?"

Not knowing what else to do, I nodded.  "He is the one who sent me here, with the apple."

"The apple!" one echoed breathily, wind-like.  "Who are you?"

"Hunter.  My mother.. . . my mother is of your world. But I grew up in Nevada's world."

The Tso Ape began another conversation in their strange language, giving Hunter and myself an occasional glance.  Like a jury they were, considering the testimony of Hunter.  Delegating our lives.  I wondered what fate they might give Hunter.  Evidently trespassing was a crime.  But I had done so.  Why had they not feared me?

Hunter took the opportunity to speak to me.  "I told you I'd come as soon as I could."  
"Did you go back to the ranch?" I asked.

"Yes.  Allie thinks your dead."

A laugh escaped my throat.  "She believed you?"

"You forget I had my knife.  I just killed a rabbit. . ."

"You killed a rabbit?!"  What horrible game were Hunter and Allie playing?  To hunt rabbits was one thing, as a sport, but to kill one in my place like a biblical scapegoat seemed too macabre.  

"I used a spell to enlarge the heart," he said reassuringly, oblivious to my point.  "She was too happy to check.  She trusts me too much."

"I can't believe you killed something for me!"

His face clouded over.  "So you would have preferred I'd killed you?  Damn it, Nevada, but I've only so much to offer you.  I. . ."

"We have made our decision," Semeg's voice interrupted.

I stepped far from Hunter, furious, sickened by the thought of a dead rabbit and the idea that Hunter was right.  Certainly I preferred my own life to a rabbit's.

"Explain your story," Semeg continued.  "We will accept your help then."

A silence hung in the air, thick and near-painful.  Hunter drew a heavy breath, eyes wandering about the cottage as he took in each sight.  "I do not claim to know the story of my aunt," he began.  "I do not know the truth of why she wants Nevada, your Dakabi, dead.  I was assigned to kill Nevada.  I refused to go through with it.  I sent her from our mortal world into yours.  She will be hid here until it is safe.  Is that too much to ask, good Tso Ape?  I have magic of my own which I will lend.  As of now, my aunt does not know Nevada lives.  But I do not know how long that will last."

"Will you not carry on the lie?" Beaicheku snarled.

"I will.  I will die before telling the truth."

The sincerity frightened me.

Semeg gazed at Hunter for a long time.  "Go then.  Leave the magic you offer here.  We fear your connection with your aunt.  But we trust you as of the moment."

Hunter bowed, and an apple appeared in his hand. Not golden, like the one he had given me.  Just a normal apple, probably from Ally's orchard.  He placed it gently on the leafy ground, then turned to me.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?"

I only wanted one thing. "I miss Roy."

"Roy?"

I nodded.  "I must see him.   He must know what's going on."

"Nev, I can't just. . ."

"He has to know!  I gave him one of my grandmother's charms.  He'll be safe, I know it."

Hunter stared at me for a long time.  I hated it.  Then he sighed.  "Okay.  If I can, I'll bring him through the orchard in three days.  I dare not come any sooner."

And then he vanished.


	11. Love

_Here it is. After months and months and months and eons, I've finally updated. I'd like to apologize for such a ridiculously long delay. I guess I just kind of. . . ignored it. But it's back. Thanks to everyone who bothered me about updating. This is to all of you._

* * *

Three days was a long time. Never before had I grasped such a concept of time. Before three days had been three days devoted to school or horses or Roy or ignoring Ally. Or something. They had been there, just days.

But now the Tso'ape refused to let me leave the house. I was suddenly a prisoner to their strange kindness, and I found I didn9owed to die as little information was gathered. Not enough to gain much of anything.

It was strange, far too strange. Time and time again I asked myself what I was doing there. I suppose I was still waiting to wake up from this insanity. But morning came and night followed, and yet I was still there in that odd forest house. Not at home. So far from White Winter Ranch. Had my father returned? What had Ally told him?

"She thinks you dead." Ally wherever with her rabbit's heart still bleeding red.

What did anyone think? I had supposed to go to the city with Heidi. We had wanted to do back-to-school shopping. Was there anyway I could escape? Run back to the real ed. Not enough to gain much of anything.

It was strange, far too strange. Time and time again I asked myself what I was doing there. I suppose I was still waiting to wake up from this insanity. But morning came and night followed, and yet I was still there in that odd forest house. Not at home. So far from White Winter Ranch. Had my father returned? What had Ally told him?

"She thinks you dead." Ally wherever with her rabbit's heart still bleeding red.

What did anyone think? I had supposed to go to the city with Heidi. We had wanted to do back-to-school shopping. Was there anyway I could escape? Run back to the real world? If Ally really thought me dead, perhaps I could hide with Heidi. Roy's parents liked me. Maybe I could even stay there.

But the more I remained in that house, the more impossible it all seemed.

Mostly I was bored. The house was charming, I supposed. But there wasn't much to see. I was given the pile of animal of pelts for my bed, warm and furry and smelling faintly of smoke and dust. Perhaps it was all true, that I was some Shoshone princess and this was my palace. And my guardians who refused to allow me out of their sight. They brought me the food and cool water in a clay jar, and sometimes they told me stories of nothing. But stories similar to what Grandma had given. For that, I was somehow grateful. But that was it. Just me and the house and the shadows and branches of the Tso Ape. What was I supposed to do but wait for Hunter and the hope that he would contact Roy?

One morning, before the other Tso Ape whirled like shadows barely visible, Izape awoke me. His hand brushed over my face like scratchy bark and with a whisper he told me to be silent.

I rubbed the doldrums-induced sleep from my eyes. What was he talking about? How early was it? For an instant I was back home in my room, the strange mirror reflecting the morning sun and throwing it on my pillow and me refusing to give in.

"The third day," Izape hissed. His owlish eyes seemed to shake in his strange face.

The third day! Immediately I was awake. "Is Hunter...?"

Izape motioned my silence, which I gave, though my heart was pounding inside me. Hunter had returned, just as he had promised. And perhaps....Roy. I could see him already in my mind, smiling and dark eyes all shining for me above open arms. . . .

"Your friend is outside," Izape continued softly. Behind him the still-dusky room seemed to stir with still breath. "The others do not know."

It seemed strange that Izape would not inform Semeg. From what I had seen over the past few days, Semeg was the leader, no argument whatsoever. The other brothers seemed to bow to his whim. In a good way; Semeg was gentle, not cruel. But he did not allow secrets, and I doubted Izape sneaking me out would not be considered one.

"Hunter," I breathed. "Roy." I might see Roy.

"He is hiding. You must go with him, quick." He helped me to my feet, a difficult task considering his size, and hurried me out the door. The room remained still. The other shadows had not awoken.

Hunter was indeed there, waiting behind a tree not far from the house. He seemed somehow. . . different. Then again, I had never before seen him in a pair of old jeans and a Weezer t-shirt that clearly he had slept in, but that couldn't be it. That was completely natural for someone like Hunter.

I ran up to him, my heart still pounding like a drum. "Roy. Is he--?"

Hunter nodded and broke into a quick walk, leaving the clearing in only a matter of steps. I hurried close behind him. He didn't seem to want to speak, but Roy. . .

I had to know. I had somehow crossed over into this world, but how had Roy? Hell, how had Hunter, for that matter? Besides the fact that he claimed magic.

My thoughts must have been loud, for Hunter finally spoke, his voice steady and loud in the dark trees. "He's at the barrier. I didn't really bring him in here."

I nodded. "But he is here?"

"You can see him, Nev. You can even touch him if you want. I know how you two love to make out." A derogatory laugh melted in there somewhere, and I felt myself blush.

Apparently Hunter was still a jerk, despite the fact that he had helped me. Somehow I couldn't ignore that fact of gratitude. I trailed closely behind him through the twisting forest. The crow. Jeribah, or whatever the name was. I suddenly imagined the black bird springing out of nowhere to attack. The thought ended with a quick shake of my head. I was being silly. I was with Hunter and whatever magic he possessed.

I was so intent on thoughts of Roy and the world around me that I ran into Hunter before I realized he had stopped.

"A little out of it, are we?" he muttered. With a grim smile he pointed ahead to where an oversized willow dangled like a canopy to the ground.

A willow. How romantically perfect.

Flinging some vague words of thanks at Hunter I darted toward the willow and pushed aside the branches. "Roy?"

"Nev?"

I could have screamed, it was so wonderful. Roy's voice, so worried, so brave.

And then I saw him, standing just beyond the willow. Faint tears streaked under his dark eyes. I had never seen him cry. "Roy!"

He caught me in his arms as I jumped, and forced his mouth against mine. I kissed back, relishing it. How long had it been since we had kissed? And then I threw my arms around his neck and cried.

He stroked my back, fingers tangling in my hair. "Nev, where have you been? Heidi called me up, frantic. She said she couldn't get a hold of your dad or Ally or anyone. And then we went up to the ranch and. . ."

"It's a nightmare," I murmured. "A freakin' nightmare." And it was. Worried Roy, worried Heidi. Ally clutching a rabbit's heart. "Roy, I don't know where to begin."

"Hunter brought me here. He said you were here. What is his problem? He is such a freak, Nev." He cleared his throat. "Come on. We've got to go home."

I nodded, hiccupping. How hard could it be? Just leave with Roy.

"You can't leave."

I jerked. "Who said that?"

Roy faltered. "Said what?"

Around me was just the trees and birds. No one. I couldn't even see Hunter. "I. . ." I didn't even recognize the voice, not fully. But there was an air of familiarity about it. Hunter? No. Izape? No. Perhaps some combination?

"Never mind." I kissed his cheek. "I just want to go."

"No!"

"Nev?" Roy was utterly confused. He shouldn't be. He was my knight in shining armor here to take me away from this forest and that Jeribah bird. And Ally. He could take me away from Ally. "Nev, Hunter was talking some crap about. . I don't know."

"She has to stay." This time it was definitely Hunter.

"What are you doing here?" Roy's voice was furious, cutting. "Why is Nev here?"

I turned around. Hunter stood only feet away, his arm extended toward me. "Roy, I highly doubt you could understand this, but. . ."

I didn't even understand it. "Hunter, I can leave. We'll be safe."

"Safe from what?" Roy asked. "Nev, what is going on?"

I didn't know. I really didn't know. I had basically been told nothing, and yet it all seemed to concern me. Ally wanting to kill me, Hunter rescuing me. Before I knew it fresh tears were spilling out like drops of fire.

And I knew. I knew that I couldn't leave. Whatever caused such a feeling I didn't know. Hunter casting more of his magic? The Tso-Ape? I could almost smell the woody, smoky scent of Izape somewhere in the trees.

I hiccupped again, the tears coming faster. "Roy, I love you. I. . I don't know how to explain. It's, it's Ally and this place."

Roy pressed me to his chest. He was so warm and good. "This place? Hunter said something about another forest. . . Nev, he took us through the. . . Nev, please. I love you."

"I love you, too."

Something was pulling me back. Hunter. How could he? "Please, Hunter."

His voice was steady. I didn't look at him, but I could imagine him there. "It's for the best. If my aunt finds you. . ."

"But I have to tell Roy." Didn't he understand?

"Roy," said Hunter. "I explained earlier. This is all for Nev. I'll bring you back again."

And then, to almost my horror, Roy let go. Yet he clung to my hand tightly as he stepped back, squeezing so gently. I clung on, still crying.

"I love you," I heard him say.

I was crying too hard then to answer. But I knew what that answer would be.

"Don't tell anyone," was Hunter's final command to my boyfriend.

I scarcely remembered the walk back to the house, only the faint questions I threw at Hunter after I stopped yelling at him.

He wasn't so bad. It was for my protection, I reminded myself. But my time with Roy, I barely had it. What had Hunter promised me?

"Roy is wonderful," Hunter said vaguely. "He's a good guy. Nev, I tried to explain as much as I could. And I'll try again. He does love you. Perhaps. . ."

There was hope there. "Perhaps what?"

He shrugged, almost fearing to answer. "Perhaps he could help with all this."

"Hunter, I don't even know what is going on."

"And neither do I." His voice was much too sharp, and I cringed. So did he, some visual semblance of guilt. "I'm sorry. But you are a princess, Nev. I tried to get more from my aunt, but. . . it's what your friends said the other day. They want to kill you. They're supposed to kill you, they swore to." He sighed. "And that includes Ally."

A changeling. . .

"Hunter," I asked. "Roy said something about how you came here. You came through the trees, didn't you?"

"Sort of."

"Sort of?"

He sighed. "It's hard to explain. We came through the apple orchard."


	12. Dead

"The apple orchard?" I echoed. "How could you do that?" Of course it was impossible, Ally's stupid grove being where it was so far from even the woods near wherever world I was.

Hunter shrugged. "Some things just happen that way. Come on, you can't tell me you're never been bothered by my aunt's orchard."

"That's only because it was scary!" Trees were trees, no matter how strange they might become. "And you. . . you would spend hours in there."

He held up a finger. "No, not in the orchard. I could come here. Ally was the one who selected those trees for your father to plant. The seedlings came from this world. That's how we can come back and forth through the orchard, because they call to this world."

A leafy branch snagged at my hair. I tugged it free. "I suppose that makes sense." I had never bothered to follow Hunter in there, despite some of Heidi's suggestions. It could be true. "Did the. . did the Tso' Ape ever see you?"

He laughed. "No offense to your friends, but I never considered them worth my time. These woods, you see, they extend to so much more than this little section of the world. I don't know. I was raised in our world, out there, watching baseball games and passing classes and all that. But when I come here, to my mother's world, well, it's different."

His mother's world. "Your mom," I began, unsure of where I was going with this. "Is she. . . is she like Ally?"

"My mom?" Hunter turned to me, passive and surprised. "Other than the fact that they are sisters? No. When my mom came to our world she accepted it with a lot more love than Ally did. She prefers humans. My aunt doesn't care for them much. Not that I doubt she loves your father."

I pulled the last clinging leaf from my dark hair and sniffed. My father and Ally. The perfect couple. "If only she didn't. She only married him because she knew about me. Whatever there is to know about me."

"Roy seems to care."

"Roy." I laughed in spite of whatever bit at my heart. "He does care. He also thinks Ally is a lunatic. With all her stupid charms all over the house. He does like her apple cobbler, though. So what did he think of the orchard?"

Another shrug. "He kept asking about you. Everyone is terribly worried. Ally said that you went to the Uintahs with your father, but Roy and Heidi say you would have told them first. I think everyone's accepting it as some wild randomness on your part, though. But Roy, I think we can trust Roy. Though he called me a freak when I took him through the orchard."

"That would be Roy." Roy. I could still feel his kiss on my lips. He was such a good kisser. "You said he might be useful."

"Of course he could. He cares about you, and the more people you have protecting you the better. He's completely of our world, unless there's something neither of you are telling me." He suddenly winked at me, once again the bratty redhead that had wandered into my room all those years ago. "Are you? You're not dating some magic prince of these woods, are you?"

I think that, for a moment, I took him seriously. Strange how that could work. Hunter could have every mark of a joke on his face and still these woods were keeping me paranoid. "Well, is he?"

Hunter shook his head. "Sorry to break it to you, Princess, but no. At least that should keep your little friends off your back."

I gave a tiny scream. "Izape! He expects me back soon! The others might find out I'm gone and they'll just be furious."

"Izape?" Hunter stumbled over the name like a bit of strange food. "Oh! Of course!" He glanced at his watch, then rolled his eyes. "Stupid thing doesn't work here. Oh, Nev, I'm sorry! I've been leading you in circles and. . . ."

"Taking your own sweet time with her, eh?" A stooped little figure of branch and mist jumped down from a tree to the path. "It's very hard to protect Dakabi from the wrath of my brothers when they fear for her." He frowned at Hunter. "You have magic to protect her, right?"

"Of course I do." To my surprise he sounded almost in tears, but closer inspection revealed a tightened laugh. "Her meeting with her boyfriend went on longer than expected."

"Boyfriend?" Izape's frown deepened. He suddenly reminded me of my father. "The one you went to meet?"

"Roy," I replied, nodding. "He missed me. And Hunter says, well, he says that Roy maybe could help me."

"Help is always good," Izape mused, mood improving. "But it is not helpful, maybe, to be out here. Jeribah might be watching." He pointed a tangled finger of root to the trees. "Can this Roy help with that?"

"There is an older spell," Hunter began.

"Tell us later," Izape scolded. "You've been good to Dakabi, but now I must bring her back before–"

That must have been Sohobi's cue to appear, looking for all the world like the remains of a stump after a forest fire. "So here is where she is! Izape, how dare you bring her out here!"

"It wasn't my fault," was Izape's retort. "It was his." This time the accusation fell to Hunter.

He grinned and shook his head sheepishly. "Sorry, Nevada. Shouldn't have helped."

"You may help in helpful ways," Sohobi instructed. "Friend of Dakabi, you need to bring her home. Unless you can keep her from Jeribah."

"And I will. So you can go home without here. I'll bring her their shortly."

"But we want her now!"

For the first time that morning I actually studied their smokey little faces, burnt with panic and worry that seemed to serve no other purpose than to drench me in guilt. An odd feeling, I realized. Much too odd, like an overprotective babysitter that was the sweetest person imaginable.

Hunter reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a tiny simulacrum of apple leaves twisted around bark. "And I want to carry this."

Izape narrowed his owlish eyes, studying the tiny figure. "Like Jeribah's," he whispered. "Such work hasn't been seen. . ."

"Jeribah's birds have lost that knowledge." He slid the thing back into his pocket. "So they'll fear this. I'll bring Nevada home shortly."

After what? Did he have something else he wished to show me?

Sohobi and Izape exchanged long glances.

"In the hour," Sohobi said. "In the hour."

And then like wind through dust, they had vanished.

I found myself laughing. "What did you do that for?"

"You're around them constantly," Hunter replied, strolling again forward. "Today that turn belongs to Roy and me."

"Why you?"

"Because I'm the one that can get you to your boyfriend."

My own spy. "I suppose you couldn't bring Heidi next time, then."

He laughed. "Heidi despises me. She–"He froze, so still he might have been a tree himself. "No."

"No?" Then I saw the birds. Four of them, tiny black things only the size of robins. I suppose I wouldn't have noticed them. The bird known as Jeribah wasn't among them, and yet. . .

One sprang up from the branch where it perched.

"You have returned," it warbled. "You have returned. Sixty years later and you have returned."

"You lie," said another. "You are wrong. This isn't her. Though the similarity is awfully striking."

"They are the same," joined the first.

"No. They say that the first is dead."

Dead? Who was dead? What were they talking about?

"Nevada!"

Hunter's voice. Or Roy's. Much, much too distant. But I could surely run to him, couldn't I?

The air around me grew green, dusky green like a summer night and much too warm.

"Jeribah swore revenge. Swore revenge against the usurpers."

Someone swore. Hunter. And the birds flew around me in a storm of black feathers and green night.

I saw it then. The warrior. Nearly seven feet tall and the armor the color of apple leaves. It wielded a bow, like a giant leaf twisted to form the curve.

Hunter's little figurine.

"She isn't protected!" a bird screamed. "We have rights to her, for she gave away some of her protection."

The warrior creature made no reply. I couldn't take my eyes of the thing. Terrible and tall and the most wonderful thing imaginable while all I could do was stand there. Its faceless head turned toward me.

"Run," it commanded in a voice that could never be human.

The same thing that Hunter had told me all those days ago. The spell was instantly broken, and I sprang toward the shelter off the path. In the corner of my eye I could see them, no longer birds, but tall men dressed in black robes.

The green warrior fired an arrow.

I didn't see if the mark was met, but continued running. Could I remember where the Tso Ape's little cottage was?

A cold hand took my shoulder. I screamed.

"Nev!"

I almost stumbled to the ground, but the hands caught me. "Hunter," I breathed.

He stood above me, arms wrapped around my waist to keep me from falling. "A little nervous, are we?"

The jerk. This was no time to joke. "What happened?"

He nodded back. "My own little toy. Hopefully it will hold them."

"You. . . you made that leaf thing?"

"Ally taught me, when I was younger. I just don't think she ever expected me to use it. Good to know it came in handy."

From the distance where I ran I could hear the screeching of birds.

"They thought I was someone else," I whispered, more to myself than to Hunter.

He blinked. "Someone else?"

I nodded. "And then the other one said that whoever I was supposed to be had left. And was dead. Do you know what they might mean?"

His hand brushed his cheek. "They spoke to you? I. . . no, I don't know what that meant. I suppose I could ask my aunt." He lowered his hand, and I realized it was stained with blood. A cut ran down the length of his face.

"Oh, no!" I reached up, nearly touching him. "You're hurt! Those awful birds!"

He grabbed my wrist, gently pushing me back. "It's nothing a first aid kit wouldn't cure. But you. . .you could have been in more danger. I should have let you go back with your friends. Which is what we shall now do. You know, maybe I'll have to get you a little leaf man for yourself."

I half-expected the Tso Ape to be outside waiting for me, they certainly watched me enough. But the door was closed and the little stream and grass empty, and for some odd reason I was glad.

"I'll come back to check on you later," Hunter said. "I'll see what I can learn from my aunt."

"Without telling her where I am." I meant it to be teasing, but I think it instead scared him. I rolled my eyes. "You are such an idiot."

"Thank-you."

I opened the door to the little cottage and stepped inside. At first glance it was empty save for the piles of skins and the carpet of leaves.

"She's back!" an airy voice cried. Beaichehku. The leaves and shadows whirled until he appeared, a little tree ghost, and his brothers did the same.

"And her friend did not let her die!" Puihigaite echoed.

"And we shall not have to punish Izape as much!" That last one belonged to Semeg.

Izape appeared in the corner, dusty and smallish and glad to see me. "I knew Dakabi would be all right."

I doubt the others heard him, not in their succeeding effort to push me into the pile of furs and feed me.

* * *

**SHOUT OUTS**

**_Aerinha:_** Thanks!

**_dragonfirechick:_** Torture me enough and I'll do anything.

**_krenya-alenak: _**Yes, Hunter is a jerk. But he's a nice jerk. Not as nice as Roy, but you have to give the boy some credit, don't you?

**_Metaphorical:_** Thanks!

**_scary miss mary:_** Thanks! Though I'm afraid to say that I think I let the language progression slacken. Bad me.

**_Tabitha78: _**Yeah, I got to have Roy. He's sort of the prince figure. And he's fun. And yes, that apple orchard will have even more of a role. And I do have a lot of ideas for this story! If only I can make my self write them down! Thanks!

**_violingirl7:_** Maybe I should stick them on fictionpress one of these days. But I'm so darn loyal to this site. To be perfectly honest, I don't know how I do these stories and classes together, either. But I always have this little plot bunnies in my head and I have to do something with them.


	13. Jeribah

It didn't take long for me to realize that the Tso'Ape did not sleep. Or if they did indeed sleep, it was a different kind unfamiliar to me and utterly contradicting to the piles of furs that lined their home.

It was four nights since Roy. I still dreamt about him, his handsome face, his silly laugh. That particular night, we were riding horses, down in a field behind the high school. He smelt of a different cologne, but not a bad one. It hung in the air like fog, heavy and wonderful and mesmerizing. I wondered, in the dream, if he would propose marriage. After graduation, of course. Idaho's marriage policy encouraged youthful weddings enough; I wouldn't mind. It was sunset, but the sun still burnt in the sky as if it were noon. Dreams are like that. We were racing, Roy and I, TJ's muscles pumping beneath his coat. Roy was ahead; that would never happen in real life. But I didn't mind because I just wanted the excitement and maybe make out in the tall grass afterwards.

And then Ally's orchard was ahead. Yet I didn't fear it or find it odd. It could hardly be called an orchard, tiny, only a few trees full of rotting apples like mush among the green leaves. Pathetic. Ally would wring my father's neck for letting it get that bad.

Roy laughed, mocking the apples. "Don't worry, babe. I'll protect you from the trees. Old magic, an older spell. Created to protect the Princess."

He had never called me Princess.

We raced closer and closer to the orchard.

It was no longer small. It burned. Fire like a storm enveloped the trees, collapsing them into ash. A bonfire of burning apple cobbler.

And out of it came the birds. Big and black with brightened eyes, brighter than the fire. I screamed as they flew at me.

Jeribah.

TJ bucked beneath me. I couldn't hold on, and the reins scraped my palms into blood as I fell, landing hard on the ground.

"Roy!" I shouted. "Roy!"

I felt someone scoop me up by the waist. Roy, I thought. But it wasn't skin I felt. Hard and rough, like bark. Soft, like a leaf.

Hunter's little toy.

But Jeribah and the other birds wouldn't stop coming. They flew at the leaf creature's blank face, tearing with their talons.

"Destroy the Green Warrior!" Jeribah screamed. "Destroy him and the Princess will have no protection! Destroy and the others will be found!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Roy, kneeling on the ground, bleeding. In his hand he wielded a branch like a spear... and his face changed.

Someone else.

Another scream burst from my throat as I sat up in bed, the animal skins spilling around me. That was when I realized it was a dream.

I knelt where I was, gasping for breath, both cool and warm and spelling of the campfire from that night; I could still see embers in the pit. A dream, a horrible dream. A nightmare.

Izape might run over to comfort me.

But the room was empty.

For a moment I was furious. How dare they leave during the middle of the night! With Jeribah and who knew who else searching after me. And they had promised to protect me.

I almost slapped myself. The Tso'Ape had shown me nothing but kindness. And what lurked in the woods but the birds? What did I fear?

Jeribah had attacked me that first day. And the Tso'Ape and Hunter... all they did was discuss what I did not understand. I still didn't know what danger I was in. If I were.

I believed them, didn't I? I accepted their protection? The nightmare had shown what I had feared.

Fear because Hunter had failed to return with information. In four days? I pounded on one of the skins.

For the first time since I had arrived in the forest, I became truly curious.

Sleep was no longer a possibility. I realized when I would be up all night. And there wasn't any point lying around here. I stood up, wrapped one of the furs around me, and walked outside. What could attack me? I had only seen Jeribah and the other birds during the day; I had heard enough stories from Grandma to know that such creatures only picked one time, day or night, for their own. I laughed at the naivete I could even recognize. Well, if there were any danger, the Tso'Ape were clearly not in their hut, so they must be in the woods.

The night was strange in the woods, but a good strange like something from movie lacking any deranged psychos. I took a deep breath, enjoying the taste of the trees and ground and whatever arose from the stream.

The stream. The dark water glinted in the faint moonlight. Where did it go? Strange to think I had never bothered to follow it. If my curiosity really wanted to learn more about Jeribah, I didn't know where to start. So why not follow a harmless stream?

It broke out of the clearing and back into the trees, straight, as straight as natural water could be, anyway, and still lit despite the shadowing trees.

A guide, I thought.

To be perfectly honest, after awhile it became dull. What had I been thinking? Feeling restless in the middle of the night, so I had decided to walk by a bit of water.

I had just made up my mind to go back when I heard laughing in the trees above me.

My heart jumped, but then I recognized the laugh.

"You're following me, aren't you?" I said clearly, not daring to look at the branches. "Puihigaite? Yebani?"

More laughter.

I laughed myself. "I'm not stupid, I can hear you fine."

"Dakabi shouldn't have gotten out of bed." Puihigaite, definitely. Amazing how I could distinguish them.

I saw Yebani's yellowish eyes peer out, bright with humor. "Naughty girl. If Semeg found out..."

Semeg. "You won't tell him, will you?"

A pause. "He should not be back till near dawn."

A thought crept into my mind, and I smiled. How did the spirits like a bit of water? I knew I might be able to splash hard enough to reach them. Slowly, I bent down to the stream and struck it with my hand.

The water grabbed my wrist. Like a wave it wrapped around my arm, squeezing the skin to pain like water should not be able to.

But it had been fire in my dream...

"Dakabi!" I heard Yebani and Puihigaite scream in unison.

I tried to scream as well, but nothing came out.

They were in the trees, the two of them. They could reach me in time. I fought at that stream, trying to pull away. I couldn't.

I saw Yebani and Puihigaite's bodies, more mist than tree in the night, leap to the ground, rushing at me like solid wind.

They weren't fast enough.

I tumbled headfirst into the water. It was much too deep to be a normal stream.

I'm going to drown, I thought madly. I'm going to drown. My legs and my free arms beat at the currents and my lungs sought for air. But I continued downward for what seemed like miles.

I wasn't running out of air. I opened my eyes; I hadn't realized they had closed. The water was gone. No, it was still there. Above me, like a string of a river on a black ceiling. I was slowly drifting down throat the air, water dripping off me and landing who knew where in the darkness.

This couldn't be...

I glanced at my wrist. The water was gone. A chain of black feathers now had me bound.

Perhaps I was still dreaming.

"You're not dreaming, my dear girl," a voice said. "Thought I do admit it does seem that way."

"Who's there?" I asked.

"I am."

A rock appeared beneath me, and the feathers gently set me there. Then, like a tiny tornado they whirled from my wrist, growing as they did so. Blacker than the air around me they were, so I could see them, clinging together and growing all the while until a tall man stood before me, dressed in a black robe except for his face. It was young, almost handsome, with a long, sharp nose in brownish skin.

I stared.

"You're very pretty," he said, extending a hand to my face. I felt his fingers burning at my cheek and twisted away. "Of course I would have expected a princess to be that way. Princess, as they called their daughters when they came."

"Jeribah," I whispered. But not a bird. "Jeribah."

"You have heard of me." There was nothing in his voice, no pride, no anger, just the statement of a simple fact.

"The bird."

He nodded. "I enjoy my bird form. As I enjoy this form."

Forms? I didn't know what to think. My eyes searched my surroundings. Nothing but darkness and Jeribah. And the stream above. What did the Tso'Ape think had happened to me? Why hadn't they protected me? But for some reason, I felt no panic. "What are you?"

He gave the faintest of smiles. "I am Jeribah. No more, no less. Master of these woods, the ancient chief of what we kept for our own when other was given to mortals. And you, Dakabi, as I have heard you called, are a daughter of the usurpers."

He had said that word before. "I don't understand."

The smile deepened, like fire continually burning into wood. "Of course you don't. You were raised among mortals. My spies have told me that much. And you probably are much mortal. Why, the last princess hasn't been to these woods in over sixty years... An ancestor of yours, of course. She must have married another. The Princess Cendirilt swore her child would return to the land of them all." His eyes ran over me. "My spies had told me you were the same, but some of my tribe are in the mortal lands..."

Ally.

"... so I know how things go there. You can't possibly be the same as Cendirilt's daughter."

Now panic was coming.

"I never thought I would hold you in my hands so easily." An almost laugh broke out, echoing in the darkness. "The Tso'Ape, they are wise, but they have long since bowed to the usurpers. They thought I was powerless at night." He looked upwards at the stream, still lit by the moon. "They fell to understand that water might take light from the moon."

I shouldn't have left.

"You won't hurt them?" I heard myself ask. They had been so kind.

"Hurt them?" For a moment Jeribah was surprised, but the smile returned. "I promise you, Princess, that I have no argument against them. They are of my forest, and my people. Should they have protected you? No. But I will not harm them. But you, Princess. It is you I have my argument against."

"What have I done?"

"Nothing. But my oath must be fulfilled." He stepped back, studying me in his gaze. "You are beautiful. Mortals hold their own glamor."

I felt sick.

He continued. "Evidently you know nothing. They came eons ago, spirits of the night into my forest, spreading chaos. There is an old story, of where problems came. A warrior the night spirits fell in love with a maiden of my people. The child of the union took over as chief after much violence." An almost kind look came into his eyes. "I doubt you find this unromantic. Many lives were lost before we were able to bring peace back. And you, Princess, are one of the last of the usurpers' line. I sensed that the moment you entered these woods. My spies have told me the Green Warrior stalks the woods, in my forest and the mortals. He thought to trick me by hiding you in my realm. He will be destroyed for that."

Hunter's leaf toy?

"As for your line... I have vowed to kill them all."

* * *

**SHOUT OUTS!**

_Aerinha:_ I hope this chapter explained more about Jeribah. He was the bird that attacked Nev earlier in the story.

_dragonfirechick:_ Sorry. I'm trying to get everything explained. I hope this chapter had some information in it.

_kaio:_ Sorry for taking forever!

_krenya-alenak:_ Yes, Hunter is an irritating dear.

_Metaphorical:_ Lol! Thanks for your enthusiasm.

_scary miss mary:_ Thanks!

_Tabitha78:_ You are correct. The one who is dead is Nev's grandmother. As for Hunter... _giggle_


	14. Mother

"I have vowed to kill them all."

My head burned like a stone of fire had been shoved into with no more and no less instruction than to just burn and burn and burn until I could only moan and hold my skull pressed tight between my knees. What did Jeribah mean? What chaos was this? Kill? Kill my line? I had no line.

I was my line.

Jeribah moved closer, all but rustling like a tall black tree in the wind. The water? I still did not understand where we were. Beneath the stream. How could he come beneath the stream? "Don't worry, Princess." His voice was like ice. "The moonlight gives me power, but you still have hours left of life. I prefer the light of the sun. Much can be seen and done in the light of the sun."

"Light," I heard myself murmur.

"Of course light." It was practically a command; I didn't understand how. "It was is your people, silly girl, that work by night, by sleep. It is how that warrior infiltrated us." His fingers, long and powerful, twisted into a fist. "But light remains."

He knew nothing of light. But why I couldn't I say that?

"I'll let you stay here till the morning." He gestured broadly at the rock. "I have no doubt you will be comfortable. And when you are dead, my revenge will be complete. When all of the Usurper's line is dead."

For the first time since the stream had swallowed me I felt a scream burst forth from my mouth. It rebounded and echoed again and again like in some sick canyon and all Jeribah did was stand there, smiling down at me past his long nose. I hated him, I hate him, I hated him. He wasn't light. He couldn't be light. Light didn't do this. Light was supposed to be good.

And when I was done screaming, he once again spoke. "Scream all you like, girl. Scream all you like and want and fear. It won't do you any good. I've worked too hard to bring peace back to my realm for the panic of a little mortal child to do anything."

Mom. I hadn't thought of her in so long. Mom, up in Canada with her new job and the new green Chevy Tahoe of which she had sent me a picture. Mom wasn't dead. I couldn't speak that. I could barely trust Jeribah not to hear my thoughts.

Maybe he did. Maybe that is why I wasn't so surprised when a new patch of darkness gave away to hideous light.

"Once you are all dead."

She was there. My mother. All beautiful like she should be and how I last saw her. Another scream wished itself to be free, but my lips wouldn't cooperate. How…?

Her eyes, big and bright and somehow regal, found mine, and tears gave way.

What happened to British Columbia?

_Nevada._ Silent, only the workings of her mouth. But she was screaming, that much was evident. She was on her feet, running toward me… But she couldn't come any further. She was there, fists and nails pounding and scratching into the air, against something invisible something keeping her too far away from me.

I was up as well, and the same went for me. Hard, like ice or stone, and much too warm. My headache was gone as I called to her. She seemed miles away. _Si, es yo. _I only mouthed. She couldn't hear me.

"She is still in the north. She's knows only what you know."

Jeribah. I had forgotten he was still there. Once again I hated him. He had my mother.

I found myself turning into him, staring back at him. "You have her. Why is she here?"

"She is still in the north," he repeated. "A thousand miles from your mortal realm. But she still can wander into mine. How can you both know so little of who you are?" He raised a hand, and Mom disappeared into the darkness. Like being eaten.

The scream freed itself, and I threw myself toward where she had been. Nothing. "What have you done with her?"

"Took her from your sight. Nothing more than a trick of the light."

I raked my hands toward his face. "I'd trick that up your ass—"

Jeribah stumbled. But I hadn't touched him. I fell back, tasting fear.

Hunter's little toy. It was back. So big. Not little. Tall and green with armor of leaves… attacking Jeribah.

Jeribah was surprised, I could tell that much. I felt his arm cut the air as he twirled around to slug the leaf warrior—the Green Warrior, Jeribah had called it—in what had to be considered the face.

But magic…

No, it was magic. Smoke billowed from the Green Warrior, thick and grey and choking. But the warrior held on, squeezing a veiny fist around the neck. Could Jeribah really be choked? For a moment he was still, then twisted again like some bug among falling leaves. And a black bird flew out of the struggle, speeding toward me.

I swung my hand at it as I dropped to the ground. Blood trickled from my hand where the beak had cut me. Damn it. My eyes flew to the bird.

It was frozen, mid-air, though its eyes still wiggled like fireflies in the darkness. A green leaf rested on its head.

But how?

The Green Warrior. But it wasn't the Green Warrior, my champion of leaves. Even as I turned to watch, the green leaves melted away till only a tiny simulacrum of leaves and twigs clattered to the ground. And yet someone still stood in its place.

"Hunter?" I whispered.

He smiled down at me, almost sheepishly. "I'm afraid so." He bent to pick up his toy.

My head spun. "It was… you?"

He shook his head, hurrying to my side and yanking me up. "I don't have time to explain the magic. But yes, it was me. But I can't tell you now. The spell will only hold a minute."

I glanced back at the frozen Jeribah. "But my mom. I saw her."

"We'll come back for her later. When we're more prepared. We can't get to her now." He closed his eyes, sighing. "I was so worried, Nev. When your little spirit friends found me, I didn't know what to think. I thought—"

I didn't get to hear what he thought. Instead, he just leaned down and kissed me.

Something about this wasn't right. Several things. Jeribah watching us, ready to burst free. And Roy. And Hunter. Why was this?

I was still dreaming.

Roy was in the last dream. He wouldn't mind this, would he? And I didn't want, did I? I wasn't kissing back, was I? I didn't understand.

I wasn't pushing away.

And then it was over. He stared down at me, blush creeping down from his red hair. "I'm sorry." He grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. "We really need to go. I shouldn't have done that."

My mouth was still tingling. This wasn't right. I couldn't even speak, couldn't reply to him. My heart was pounding too fast for that.

Hunter? Him?

We ran through the darkness—somehow Hunter could break through, though I felt it pushing down on me with each step. What about the light Jeribah had mentioned? His precious light?

A shriek echoed behind us. Jeribah was free, tearing after us like a bat out of hell.

"Faster!" Hunter commanded.

"You are mine!" Jeribah shouted.

Hunter threw me before him, pushing me away. I dizzied a few running steps before falling to the ground. Onto dirt.

I looked up. Stars. Moon. White Winter Ranch in the distance.

And behind me…

I turned around just in time to see Hunter swallowed up in the blinding black robes of Jeribah.

* * *

**SHOUT OUTS!**

_letylyf:_ Thanks! I promise more will be explained as the story passes.

_krenya:_ Yes, Jeribah is still a bad guy. He may have a reason to feel the way he does, but he is still doing evil.

_fell4adeadguy_: Yeah, you do almost have to pity Jeribah. I bed he'd be nice if I gave him a girlfriend to smack him around.


	15. Prince

I screamed Hunter's name. At least I think I screamed it. Screamed something until I could no longer feel my throat. And then I was up, racing toward where he and Jeribah had vanished into the trees and darkness. I reached forward, grabbing for Hunter, Jeribah, anything but the rough trees that slashed at my fingers. Where had they gone? They couldn't.

I fell to the ground once more, gasping for breath only to have it freeze in my mouth. Hunter. Hunter and everything he had done for me. Taken me into the woods and...

The ranch. It was still behind me, I no longer even had to look. Even so, I glanced back. There it was, the house and the barns and the sheds and the stables and whatever other stupid word that could be used to describe a simple shelter. Trucks and horses and trees and fields and four-wheelers. The long road winding away to the town.

Once again I tried for air. This couldn't be. I was... back. The real world. My world. I couldn't think about what Jeribah had told me. But why would I be back? Hunter had taken me there for my own protection. He wouldn't push me back out. Unless... unless it was now more dangerous in there.

Dangerous to whom? He was the one who had been caught! I screamed again and leapt to my feet. I had done it before; I had made it into the woods, the other woods. I just ran so fast that it had to let me through.

So I ran again, ran and ran until I couldn't breathe and then I just kept running. I ran farther than I had before, that one day. And I hit nothing. No barrier, no giant trees, nothing. Nothing nothing nothing until I finally stopped.

"Hunter," I whispered. How was I supposed to rescue him now? There had been that little stream; maybe it was the same. Except no matter how I looked I couldn't find the stream.

So, for whatever reason, I wandered back to my father's ranch.

The door was locked, but I knew where the spare key was kept. Silently I crept in, trying to dare myself to call out "Daddy!" No doubt he had been missing me. That is, of course, if he were back from the Tetons. Ally had planned the whole damn thing out. So I was just silent, listening to my own footsteps and the ticking of some silly apple clock. Ally's little charms were still all around, watching me. I pulled one off the wall and crumpled it in my fists.

What the hell was she thinking?

I grabbed the phone, snuck into the basement, and dialed Mom's number. I normally didn't call her, not in the middle of the night, but I had to be sure... the phone just rang and rang and rang, without so much as a machine to pick it up.

Messages full, I thought.

I tried her cell. She always had her cell with her. Nothing.

I took a deep breath and leaned back against a crate of apples. What was I supposed to do now?

I dialed again. Roy's number. His dad answered. He didn't complain, just woke up Roy. Good guy.

"Baby!" Roy's voice was shrill. "How did—what are you—oh, man, Nevada!"

I couldn't reply, no response other than a cry. How was I supposed to explain this to him? He didn't understand. He just knew what Hunter had told him.

He tried to understand. "I'm coming over."

I hung up, heart pounding. Roy. I really needed him. Just because Hunter had dared kiss me... Hunter was a pest, always would be a pest.

Maybe I should call Heidi.

Darkness is enveloping. Sometimes I think it's safe like that. It's not a bad magic, necessarily. It hides things, not always monsters, but it can hide you. But I couldn't hide down there for the rest of my life. I climbed the stairs back to the kitchen.

She was there. Ally. Blonde hair braided and hanging at her shoulders and a mint green bathrobe. She was watching me, long before I came up the stairs. "Nevada," was all she said.

My hand froze on the railing.

She laughed and took a step toward me. "Forgive me if I don't seem surprised enough. I feel it, oh yes. But one can't always resort to expressing such feelings. But I'm afraid I assumed you dead."

"You wish." My nails dug into the soft wood. "Where's my dad?"

She shrugged. "Tetons, I assume. He likes his trips. He hasn't been informed yet. At least your boyfriend stopped calling around." Her eyes trailed past me. "Where's my nephew? This is all his fault. Couldn't even kill you properly. Idiot."

If I had something to throw... "How dare you speak of him like that!" My voice was ice blades, and I meant it that way. "How dare you? And you call yourself is aunt?"

"Like what? It's not my fault he failed his duty. Just like his mother. I promised that any child my sister or I gave would be sure to return to our woods, with human strength. And do what Chief Jeribah commands." She strode over to the fridge and pulled out a can of Sprite. "We have revenge to commit. Your mother—"

"What about my mother?" Ally didn't know, did she?

"I know she has been captured. I've head word of that. Two days ago, in fact. Good riddance."

All energy left me. "Do you know why?"

She snapped the can open and approached me, her fingers rubbing my cheek. I reeled away. "You're a pretty, pretty girl, Nevada. Very pretty. The princesses are supposed to be." She backed away, one single step and not in fear. "Of course I know why. Your mother deserves death for what your ancestors did, as much as you do. But she knows nothing. I wonder if your grandmother did, if her own mother told the right stories. Nevada, your people have been hunted to extinction, save for you and your mother. Jeribah swore a vow eons ago not to rest until it was done. But he is a fool, one who likes to play his games."

"I don't understand." Why was I here? I guess I had to know. "Jeribah told me about the princesses..."

"That's all you need to know, girl," Ally said. "That's all there is to know. The Usurper ruined the forest, and the moment we regained control we began to kill them all off. But they always managed to escape us. Yet we were skilled. Until finally, there was one girl left. A girl named Cindirilt, who managed to escape the woods into the mortal lands. She was your great-grandmother. If she never told anything to her daughter, well, that's not my fault. However, I'm sure she died of natural causes, and I understand your grandmother passed away as well. So now there are just two to pay for what horrors that were caused."

"But we didn't cause those!"

"It doesn't matter. The bloodline must be brought down. If only Hunter hadn't been such a coward..."

"He saved me!" I knocked the Sprite can from her hand. "He saved me from you!"

She only smiled. "Yet he wasn't brave enough to come back with you."

I stared at her, hating everything about her like I had always hated her for no reason except that now I actually had a reason. "Jeribah has him."

Her smile fell. "You lie."

"I would never lie about something like that."

She stared back at me. I could feel her eyes trying to dig into my brain, see the truth. All I could see on her is fear.

She tried to be brave. "He gets what he deserves."

"He's your nephew."

"I don't care." And all she did was stand there in a puddle of Sprite.

"I do." I walked out of the kitchen.

She didn't come after me.

I didn't know what I would do. I'd... I'd wait till Roy came, if he wasn't already pulling up, and then we'd... I had no idea. But Ally wasn't following me.

"Wait!"

I turned.

She stood in the kitchen doorway, still afraid of whatever there was to be afraid of. Jeribah. Hunter. "You can't get back the other way."

"Shut up."

"You have to go through the orchard. It's hard, because you are so mortal now, but your great-grandmother... you should still be able to go through. But it will be hard. Here." She reached into the pocket of her robe and pulled out a twisted pit of dried apple and rafia. "This will help." She tossed it at me, then ran.

It landed at my feet. I shouldn't take anything from Ally. I shouldn't. But it was there, so I picked it up and placed it in my own pocket.

I didn't remember the night being so cold. There was ice, it seemed on Roy's car. He was there, just pulling up. I ran to him and had my arms around him before he was even out.

He kissed me, one of his better kisses. "Nev, this is amazing. I missed you so much!"

I exchanged the kiss, quickly. I couldn't think of that right now. "We need... Hunter needs help." I slid my hand into his and started to drag him toward the orchard. Roy would help me. I knew he would. He was my prince.

He balked. "Nev, I don't understand. Please, let's just..."

"Just what?" I wasn't angry, but it sounded that way. "Make out in the field or the barn, like always? Please, Roy."

He came, just slowly. "What happened to him?"

"Jeribah. This guy in the woods. He capture him and I escaped—"

"The barrier," Roy said softly. "Nev, you can't go back. It's too dangerous."

"But what about Hunter?" I could already see the orchard. I started running toward it, Roy hesitantly behind me. "He saved me, Roy."

"I thought you hated him."

"I don't—" I almost stopped. How could I hate someone like Hunter? "Roy, that doesn't matter!"

The orchard was right there. Somehow it looked so small, too small, like some pathetic twigs in a rock garden. I laughed. Just something of Ally's.

"What's so funny?"

He wouldn't understand. "There. We need to go through there." I tried to run forward, but jerked back when Roy didn't move. "Roy!"

"Nev." He spun me around until I was facing him. "Nev, this is insane. I still don't know what's going on."

"Neither do I."

He sighed, shook his head, and put his arms around me. He was so strong. So why wouldn't he follow? "I can't go in there. Not again. Not after that last freak show."

That freak show had been me.

"Nev, I love you, but we can't go back there. You're safe now. Here. I'll protect you here."

I gazed up at him, thinking how positively cute he was. My very first boyfriend. The one who liked to ride horses with me and take me on dates and liked the Beatles. "I"m sure you would," I said. "But I need to go back in there. It's not just Hunter, my mom is—"

"Canada, I thought. This isn't making any sense. I'm sorry."

"So am I." I gave him last one kiss on the cheek, then ran aloneinto the orchard.

* * *

**SHOUT OUTS!**

**letylyf:** I guess it is kind of odd, but I am going with the fact that they are just not related. Because, technically, Ally never adopted Nev. Anywho, yes, I am trying to kill Hunter off. Or something.

**Gerontius.T:** Thanks!

**Heather**: Thanks so much! Two reviews out of you is okay. And as you can probably guess from this chapter... I don't think much of Roy, either.

**Tabitha78:** Actually, I plan on just focusing on this story for awhile, until it's finished. I've been working on it long enough.

**fell4adeadguy:** Don't worry; Hunter will be fine.


	16. Apple

I had forgotten what the orchard was like, how strange and so not right like an orchard of apples should be it was. So hard to breathe. That's how it had been. Green and darkness spread around me, radiating from the leaves. The smell of apple was so strong. Crisp. I suddenly liked it.

Perhaps there was a river nearby...

My eyes snapped open, though I hadn't even realized they had been closed. A river? Where did that thought come from? Moonlight on the stream. My fingers closed into a fist. Jeribah. How near was he? I took a deep breath, acidic with apples, and let my hands ease out and touch the little charm Ally had given me.

The air backed away. I even felt a tree limb twitch, pulling back into its mother tree. It rustled as it did so, like whispers in the dark, from people I couldn't see. Maybe the trees were alive. Very, very alive. Slowly, I reached out to one of the branches and closed my hand around it.

It burned. I almost let go. Then it twisted and shook and scratched at my palm, yet was unable to free itself in the end. The tree screamed, something wooden and breathy. Probably wind. Except I didn't believe that anymore. The shaking grew, spreading from the branch to the trunk and down into the roots and ground. It wanted out.

An earthquake, I realized. I remembered this. The pounding. When Heidi and I had followed Hunter inside. This was it. This was what it was.

Except it couldn't do anything.

It was like jumping off a cliff, knowing full well a net or a giant pillow was there to catch you with no regard for the laws of physics. The pillow would be safe. Roller coasters were exhilarating. This was something more. I squeezed into the branch, imagining the stiff wood melting like hot dough between my fingers. What had Ally given me?

An apple shook on a branch, threatening to come loose. I laughed. Apples. Ally loved her apples, yet had given me the secret to beating them.

The branch thrashed in my fist. It no longer even hurt. It just grew smaller and smaller...

Ally. I gasped as I grabbed again for the branch. But it had finally slipped free, now all green and small. I felt it whip at me.

Ally... I threw the charm to the ground and crushed it under my foot, screaming her name the whole time. That traitor. No, she wasn't a traitor. Just because a silly Idaho girl was stupid enough to trust her...

The trees backed away. They were just trees.

I remained where I was, gasping for breath. The air was so strange now. Almost normal. Except much too warm.

What else had Ally lied about? Perhaps I could still get through. She had promised me that much.

I straightened, my hand reaching out for the nearest tree. No, they could never be just trees. They were Ally's trees.

Did spirits really have possession like that?

Something grew in the darkness ahead of me. Light, blinding and painful.

"Let me pass," I said again. "Let me through."

The light quivered, considering. Around me a stiff breeze broke through the trees.

Oh, please let me through. This light would. All the dancing lights and colors from my childhood... is this where my grandmother had learned them? How did one make the light obey?

"I need to get through," I shouted.

The light drifted closer. Closer and closer and closer until I could finally see what it was, all soft and light and so unlike the apple trees. But also the same. A bird, of some sort. Or perhaps a butterfly or a winged spider. I couldn't be sure.

I forced myself to breathe steadily. In and out. In and out. Why hadn't I had a heart attack yet?

The little thing nodded, and the ground beneath me vanished.

I landed softly, to my surprise. A pile of leaves and bush and flowers that crept up my arm even as I sat there, stunned. Tightening around my wrist. I shook them away and climbed to my feet. All around me were the giant trees. I was back. I kicked away whatever was gardening my legs and ran. I knew where I was. I could feel it. The Tzo'Ape... they couldn't be far.

But that isn't where I needed to go. Just beyond their cottage, in the stream. The moonlit stream that would probably once again suck me down... I couldn't think of that. Jeribah had Mom and Hunter.

What was I supposed to do? For the first time I felt like falling to my knees and spilling out whatever fountain of tears was building up in me without even my knowledge. But I couldn't. How long was it before Jeribah did whatever he was going to do?

Besides... the Tso'Ape, Izape, Puihigaite, all of them would only try and protect me. Protection wasn't what I needed. Not now. They had already given me that, but that was all over now. Protection and safety and a little hole in a tree wasn't what was needed when there was danger.

I passed their little cottage, the little stream. A flash of grey and bark and shadow passed my eyes. Perhaps they saw me. I only hoped they understood. So I just kept on running.

I ran into the woods, where I had gone before. But the stream was now gone. Had I gotten lost? No, this was where I had gone, I was sure of it. But even so I ran another way. There was no stream. Just that around the spirits' cottage.

I finally stopped, weak and cold and warm from the sweat. I couldn't let the tears come, not even now. I knew how I could get Jeribah. All I had to do was call his name. These were his woods, he had said. These were his. He would hear and he would come, no matter what darkness surrounded me. My mouth opened, breathing in the piney scent of the forest. Dirt and dust and animals and whatever else lay around. Magic. That's what it was. How hadn't I noticed before.

But I couldn't shout Jeribah. So I called another name. "Mom!"

She hadn't heard me last time. But I had been down there. "Mom!" I shouted again, letting it echo against the trees. Trees make for interesting echoes. "Mom, where are you?"

How did that look? A girl in the woods, crying for her mom. Like the dark truth of some fairy tale I had heard as a child. But Mom was in the woods. I had seen her.

I called for her one last time, let that echo die away, and waited. I wasn't expecting anything, was I?

"Nev?"

My heart flipped.

I turned around. She was there, like I hadn't seen for so, so long. All dark hair and eyes and things I hadn't inherited. And she was here.

"Mom," I whispered, running into her arms and wondering how this was possible. Was it really so easy? Calling her name and freeing her? Was Jeribah so easily beat? Who knew how it worked with magic.

"Oh, Nev," she said, running her hands through her hair. "I thought— you vanished. That demon in there." She sighed. "Your grandma talked about this. Once, when I was small. I thought it was just a story."

"Maybe she did, too." I couldn't explain the story. Not all of it. "Maybe it's good she died."

Mom nodded, tears running down her cheeks. "I don't think it's either, honey. I just... I just don't understand..."

"There's too much to explain. I don't even know. Ally—Dad's whore—she tried to kill me. I had to come. You were here. Hunter—"

"Ally's nephew?" Her words hung.

I stared at her. "You... you saw him?"

"I..." She backed away, though her hands, nails painted white, still clung to my shoulders. "Nev, how did you bring me here?"

"I... I called your name." Why was she acting this way? Her eyes were almost blazing. What kind of reunion was this? She was supposed to be asking about school and Roy and whatever else there was.

"Nev, honey, he—" Without another word her hands slid down my arms to my hands, and she began running, me barely hanging on. I felt the wind whip my face. I didn't know she could run like this. My mother...

There was a bush ahead, thick and green and scratchy, with just enough shelter. Like a cave. No light. Just the sweet protection of darkness.

"He followed me," she finally said. "I felt him next to me even as you brought me there." She laughed. "That was nuts. Dragged through wherever to there." She leaned back against the branches of the bush and breathed deeply. "Oh, Nev, where are we? Besides his woods. I hope he can't watch us from here. It's the light he survives on. I don't think he expected you coming."

I just smiled weakly. I still didn't know what to make of myself.

"We need to get out of here."

I shook my head. "Hunter first. We need Hunter."

"I thought Hunter..." Her hand slid over mine. "Honey, I thought Roy—"

"Roy," I echoed. I still didn't know what to make of him. Roy Roy Roy and all he had done for me. And then Hunter. That kiss. Why hadn't I felt it before? Like the way he would watch me. Like the way I would watch him. I didn't know. "Mom, Roy wouldn't come."

The story spilled out, what Hunter had done. How he truly was the Green Warrior. Pushing me back into the real world. That crazy kiss. Ally. How Roy wouldn't come.

She was silent for a long time. "You told me once that you loved Roy."

"I don't know what I think anymore." The tears had finally found their ways out. "I don't... Roy wouldn't come with me. Hunter, well," I could barely even think the words. "Mom, he saved me. He saved me three times and Roy hasn't done anything like that." What was I asking for? I had just shunned protection.

Perhaps if I called his name... I climbed from the bush, straying from the patches of moonlight. "Hunter!" I screamed. "Hunter!"

He didn't appear.

No.

More tears broke out, more than I had realized I had. I crawled back into the bush where Mom was waiting. Why hadn't she been here before? Why was she off wherever I wasn't? Why had I chosen to go stay with Dad?

She scratched my back, her long fingers and longer nails sliding over the shirt like the dream of a massage. "Nev," she said softly. "Who are you looking for? You're still young, you still have time. But who are you looking for? When your father brought you here, who was first?"

Hunter had snuck into my room...

She continued, not expecting anything from me. "Some people will give you everything you need, yet never dare follow."

My mouth was warm, like it had just been filled with sickening sugar. "Roy... Roy didn't come through. He didn't try and come through, not when Hunter brought him to me. Hunter had to bring him."

I had watched Hunter, when he had visited. Sometimes.

"How long have you loved him?" she asked.

I couldn't reply. My mind went into a mist. Hunter, Hunter, Hunter. The obnoxious brat... why was my heart pounding like this? How the hell did mothers know?

"If he follows..."

"Would Daddy not follow?" I asked. Was that enough?

She didn't answer, just asked. "Do you want to go back?"

I nodded, then shook my head.

"I'll come with you."

"Thanks, Mom."

"Actually, I don't think I'm free yet. He wouldn't let us leave, anyway."

We crawled from the bush. The stream was before us, moonlight glittering on the surface like a thousand broken mirrors.

Mom leaned down, drifting her finger across it. "It's hard," she said. "Glass."

"Hunter!" I screamed again. Nothing.

A dark shape appeared, reflected like black moonlight. I saw an eye, winking from the water. "She can't come. If the younger princess wants the Warrior, she will come alone. I hold the other still in my power."

"Nev." Mom was pleading. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes." I like to think she understood.

Mom punched the stream. It was like brick to her. "I'm coming with her!"

A laugh. "No. You cannot pass through her. I control you still."

Mom didn't cry much. But then she did. "Please..."

I didn't hear the rest. My heart was breaking. But she had to understand. If Hunter was there... "Jeribah!" I shouted. Then I jumped into the stream.

"Nevada!" Mom screamed after me.

Why didn't she just leave while she had the chance? So I could call her and talk her and it would all be okay? The water poured past me, so warm. Tropical warm. Best feeling there could be. And for a moment I was even calm.

I landed on soft ground, once more. Except no leaves and flowers. Just softness. And light.

"Glad to see you made it."

I closed my eyes against him. "Where is he?"

"Who?" I felt the hem of his cloak slide past me. "The Green Warrior? Aye, a magic I've wondered for a long time. Lost to even me. Older than me. Even the true name has vanished. But they say the appear, time and time again."

"Where is he?" I repeated, louder. I couldn't open my eyes. I was safe in the dark.

"Why have you come for him?" A jest, now. "He freed you. And yet you foolishly come back. Aw, the lie of the wisdom of the princesses!"

"Let him go!" I screamed. "Let him and my mom go!" My ears rang and rang until they probably bled from the sound of my own voice. "And let me go! We'll leave you alone, I promise. Take someone else, anyone else." A wicked request, but it was all I could feel.

"Someone in your place?" His footsteps echoed. How big was this place? Not the place where Mom and I had been captured? "My vow. I swore an oath. I would not rest..."

"But you don't need him."

"Look at me."

No. I squeezed my eyes even tighter. I couldn't look. Not at him. Not at the light.

"You are good." There was respect in his voice. "He will be freed, then."

"No!" A voice broke from no where. Hunter's.

He was close! He was close and alive and there. Oh yes.

"Nev, don't!" he screamed, commanded. I couldn't see him. It was like that old Greek story. If I looked...

"What do I have to do?" I asked. I could barely hear myself.

"My servant," he said. "Grows apples."

He pressed something into my hand.

An apple.

He continued. "I take your offer. Only eat this. You will not die. Neither will your mother. Only eat this."

I had taken something from Ally. I had nearly died. But she had made no promise. "Do you promise?"

"I promise, as Chief of these woods."

The apple was cold in my hand. Wet. Like the stream we were under.

"Nev, no!" Hunter screamed.

Hunter screamed again, a cry. And another cry. My mother.

She was here. Somehow.

I felt the apple at my lips. I bit.

* * *

**SHOUT OUTS!**

_fell4adeadguy:_ I think we would all miss him. I like him.

_Gerontius.T:_ I can kill off Hunter if I darn well please. But I do like him, so we'll see... Yay for his fangirls.

_Heather:_ You will have to wait and see how it turns out.

_Magistrix Mundi:_ Thanks. I guess I had fun with the names. I'm like that. I should read Clive Barker now...

_rainkisser:_ Whoohoo! Thanks for the reviews! They were so fun to read! And you can be the official Hunter fan girl.


	17. Mirror

Perhaps I just never gave the woods enough credit, enough respect for whatever magic they deserved. I guess I wasn't used to them; my little section of Idaho never really had much to do with any of that-thick woods and trees and whatever else an east coast might claim. My world wasn't that, just open farm land and country with the scattered towns of stereotypical Idahoan respect, and the occasional spot of magic like the sand dunes just north of Sugar City and Rexburg that would flow so slowly like golden waves of an ocean yet could still let you fall into them and sleep forever, like the hot days at the Boy Scout Camp outside Montpeliar with a steaming blue lake.

Maybe, in some ways, that is all so much more real. Jeribah's powerful in his own way, a dream way. Maybe that's why I wasn't afraid enough.

I should have seen it coming; I bet everyone else did. Mom and Hunter and whoever the hell else saw. A pale little girl with dark hair and eyes shut to the light and darkness that all stemmed from Jeribah and a poisoned apple in her hand. Like eating it would free Hunter and let Mom escape from however else Jeribah held her. Apples were Ally and Ally was bad, and that should have been enough to know. Sometimes that doesn't made any difference. Sometimes you just do it anyway because it's right.

The sleep didn't come right away. I was there enough to let the apple drop, smash to the ground in bloody applesauce. There enough to feel Hunter grab my hand, Mom touch my cheek. Enough to hear Ally. Of course she would follow me, being like that.

Ally laughed. I even understood it. Here was the most she could get. The freedom of the traitor son of a traitor sister. The chief she worked for. And a dying stepdaughter.

Mom picked up the remains of the apple and shoved it into Ally's mouth, calling her all sorts of names that I didn't know Mom even knew. I don't know how I knew that, with the way I was and the sleep coming in and my eyes all closed. But I knew. You can know a lot of things in those last moments.

"Hang in there, baby," Mom said.

Hunter squeezed my hand. I was too dizzy to respond. "Get up, Nev," he said. Not sweet, like Roy would use. That same old bratty-nephew-of-Ally's tone. I preferred it. He pulled me to my feet, and I fell against his chest, completely out.

It didn't take very long. A split second. Probably, that's all it was. I don't think sleep can be measured.

And so I woke up, on a pile of soft furs in the woody little cottage the Tso'Ape had built.

"Dakabi," Izape whispered. Seven pairs of owl eyes gazed worridly at me.

Them. I smiled, though it hurt. "I can't escape your protection, can I?"

"We serve you, Dakabi." I think Semeg actually attempted a bow. "Princess."

Princess. I tried to sit up. "Mom. Where's my mom?"

Yebani shook his head. "She left."

"Left?" My heart pounded. "What do you mean?"

"Jeribah let her go. To her own place in your own world."

Izape gave a smile. I like to think he was trying to joke. "In exchange. You made an offer. Someone for someone."

For a moment I didn't understand. But the smiles that built around me like cracks in wood... "Ally."

A laugh.

I closed my eyes, almost sick from my heart. I hadn't meant... Of course, Ally had tried to kill me. But I still hadn't meant for this.

"Jeribah accepted gladly. Her apples didn't work, as you can see. Whatever oath Jeribah made was not tight enough to prevent a sacrifice. Dakabi's mother, the other princess, was freed." Izape frowned thoughtfully. "She gives message-thrust out and couldn't stay. So she gave a message. Call her."

Call her. My heart subsided. Just dial her cell phone and hope she wouldn't think this all a dream. Damn it, she must be so worried! Ironic to think this was the first time I had talked so much with her.

"And you are free, too," Sohobi said, pressing a twiggy hand over mine. "Jeribah even commanded you to leave. He says... he will stop hunting you. He thought you were brave. Bravery is light, he said. You didn't run, like other princesses have. You came to him. He honors that. Just like he honored his oath. Now... he will rest."

"He will what?" Jeribah... was it even possible to gain that kind of respect? I stared up at the opening in the roof. Daylight. Finally day. So he had... Ally. Well, she had been my stepmother. Perhaps that was princess enough. I pushed my way off the furs, realization settling in. Ally was gone. Ally was finally gone. I didn't know what I would say to my father.

Had he really been in love with her? It could have been only a spell.

"So," I said. "You... brought me here?"

Ondembiti shook his head. "No. Your friend brought you here. Brought you back and woke you up."

My breath caught in my throat. I hadn't notice Hunter there, standing in the shadows of the doorway.

He smiled, all shy. I wondered what happened to the boy that had marched into my room and scratched my mirror.

The mirror. Bits of glass lay scattered at his feet, and bits of white wood.

"I broke it," he said. "Ally brought it with her. She watched you all the way with it."

"Seven years bad luck," I replied.

"I can handle it." He sighed, sliding a hand through his red hair in a failed distraction to figure out how to say what he should have been asking. " Nev... you shouldn't have come back."

I should have slapped him. "You came back for me."

I guess he didn't have a reply for that. And so, with all the spirits watching and everything else there was to worry about, I jumped over the glass and kissed him. Hair dusty and tangled and clothes all tattered-both of us. He didn't seem to mind. I felt that much, his arms tight around me as the glass shards faded right away into the soil as if Ally had never been. Though she had been, or else Hunter would have never come out to kill me and none of this ever would have happened.

Grandma would have thought this a fine story. Perhaps she knew all along.

_**The End!**_

* * *

**__**

_Wow, I have been been pathetic with this story, actually getting up. Considering it was started almost a year and a half ago? And I tried to pretend it didn't exist for way too long? But it has been a pleasure for me to write when I was feeling up to it, and I hope to someday go back and mess around with it a little more. Shall put that on my things to do list. Which might be strange, because this was different than anything else I have ever written. But I had always wanted to do a Snow White with a little more girl power, and maybe modern. And I just thought it would be cute if she hooked it up with the guy who was meant to kill her. _

_I realize the ending isn't all that tied up... but I've been so mysterious throughout the story that I didn't feel like I should properly close everything. For all I know, Jeribah is still a danger._

_Thanks to everyone who has replied with encouragement, greatly appreciated criticisms, and just good old whatever: You are so awesome!_

**_Aerinha:_** I so appreciate your reviews! I look up to you and your work!

**_Arwench: _**Ah, another fantastic writer who's reviews I so much appreciate!

**_awkward: _**Thanks for always being so brutally honest and helpful and giving me a standard to which to rise.

**_Celebrindal: _**Thanks!

**_dragonfirechick:_** To my friend in random fantasy!

**_ElvenDreams:_** Thanks so much for your gushing. It makes me think I can do this.

**_fell4adeadguy:_** Always the bringer of entertaining reviews and much help!

**_fenri'sael: _**Thanks!

**_Gerontius.T:_** Thanks for coming in so late! You are the other Hunter Fangirl!

**_Heather: _**Thanks for being so enthusiatic and making me feel guilty for not posting.

**_JLF:_** Thanks!

**_Kadesh: _**Thanks!

**_kaio: _**My ridiculously loyal friend! I love you!

**_Krenya: _**My best source of help and criticism! Where would I be without my favorite dorm girl!

**_letylyf: _**Ah, you who have given me so much help in so many stories! Thanks!

**_lianna deaf:_** Thanks for the threats!

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**_lynx wings:_** Thanks for appreciating all my little twists!

**_mdbgem:_** Thanks!

**_Metaphorical:_** My friend of much _10th Kingdom_ and Fairy Tales!

**_rainkisser:_** You rock! I am ever so appreciative of your reviews! They just make my day and really got me through this last bit of writing. And I hope to see more of your stories! You shall forever be Hunter's fangirl.

**_scary miss mary_**: Thanks for the detailed reviews! It was so inspirational and really made me want to keep going. It's so nice when people notice little things! I love you!

**_Sibbie:_** Ah, the first person to wonder who the Prince Charming might truly be. And connecting to this story.

**_snazy piranha:_** Thanks, and please update your stuff!

**_Snow White: _**In much thanks.

**_Tabitha78:_** As always, thank you. You have no idea how much your readership means to me. You're so loyal even when you have no right to be. Thanks for everything.

**_violingirl7:_** Thanks so much for all your compliments! And good luck to you at BYU!

**_Woe Is Me:_** Thanks!

**_Written in Stars:_** COASTER!

Candy for all!


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